Senior Global Extended Workforce Compliance Lead

ABOUT THE ROLE The extended workforce provides specialized services that support aspects of OpenAI’s global operations and growth. The Senior Global Extended Workforce Compliance Lead is responsible for designing and implementing strong, practical and business-aligned compliance frameworks governing OpenAI’s extended workforce program, supporting the company’s international growth. This role reports directly to the Head of Extended Workforce and serves as the primary owner of compliance strategy execution, governance, and operational rigor across OpenAI’s global extended workforce ecosystem. A core expectation of this role is to balance business momentum with a strong compliance foundation. The successful candidate will develop clear, scalable guidance that interprets legal and regulatory requirements across jurisdictions and extended workforce engagement models. This is a hands-on senior role for someone who thrives in ambiguity, can simplify complex compliance issues for business stakeholders relative to OpenAI’s extended workforce, and drives those matters through to resolution in a fast-paced environment. This role provides operational compliance leadership for OpenAI’s extended workforce program and partners closely with Legal and Compliance on legal and regulatory matters, but does not provide legal advice. This role can be based in San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, or Washington, DC. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL: - Lead and continuously advance OpenAI’s extended workforce program, including operating models, governance structures, and escalation frameworks. - Develop and maintain country-specific compliance guidance for OpenAI’s extended workforce in support of OpenAI’s global operations across regions and jurisdictions. - Serve as the primary point of ownership for extended workforce compliance across regions, worker types, and engagement models. - Partner closely with the Head of Extended Workforce to ensure compliance approaches remain supportive of business needs and risk tolerance. - Design and maintain compliance standards, controls, and operating guidance for OpenAI’s extended workforce that support speed, scale, and operational efficiency. - Ensure such compliance frameworks are practical, usable, and aligned to how teams actually operate. - Continuously assess opportunities to reduce friction while maintaining strong safeguards. - Coordinate and facilitate extended workforce immigration, visa, and right-to-work compliance in partnership with suppliers, Legal, and People Compliance, ensuring required processes, approvals, and supplier-managed documentation flows are executed correctly. - Embed compliance requirements into day-to-day workflows for OpenAI’s extended workforce, including VMS processes, onboarding and offboarding, approvals, and worker lifecycle management. - Serve as the point of escalation for complex or sensitive extended workforce compliance matters as needed. - Drive issues to resolution through close coordination with Legal, People Compliance, People Team, Security, Finance, and business stakeholders. Supplier Oversight & Regulatory Activities - Lead compliance oversight of extended workforce suppliers, including staffing agencies and payroll/EOR partners. - Conduct supplier compliance assessments and periodic reviews and manage follow-up actions as needed. - Coordinate workforce-related reporting and compliance activities as required by applicable law. Performance, Investigations & Issue Management - Support workforce performance and sensitive workplace issues in partnership with suppliers and cross-functional teams. - Ensure consistent and compliant handling of issues across regions and extended worker populations. - Establish clear intake, triage, documentation, and resolution processes for compliance-related concerns. Legal Partnership & Risk Communication - Partner closely with Legal on extended workforce contracts, compliance documentation, and risk frameworks. - Translate legal and compliance requirements into clear, actionable guidance for business owners and suppliers. - Identify, assess, and communicate compliance risks relative to the extended workforce and trends in a clear, executive-ready manner. YOU MIGHT THRIVE IN THIS ROLE IF YOU: - Have 8+ years of experience in global workforce compliance, employment compliance, HR operations, or extended workforce governance. - Have demonstrated experience operating across multiple countries and regions. - Have a proven ability to build, operate, and mature compliance programs in complex, high-growth environments. - Have familiarity with extended workforce ecosystems and VMS platforms (e.g., VNDLY, SAP Fieldglass, Beeline) (strongly preferred). - Have a Bachelor’s degree. JD degree is a strong nice-to-have, but not required. - Have the strong ability to operate in ambiguous environments and drive issues to resolution. - Have sound business judgment with a bias toward enablement over restriction. - Have the ability to simplify complex legal and compliance topics into clear, practical guidance. - Enjoy being a highly effective cross-functional partner with Legal, Finance, People Compliance, People Team, Security, and Procurement. - Are a clear, concise communicator who builds trust with senior stakeholders. About OpenAI OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.  We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf. Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. 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