Director of Corporate Accounting

About the Team

OpenAI’s mission is to build safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) which benefits all of humanity. This long-term undertaking brings the world’s best scientists, engineers, and business professionals together under one organization to accomplish this. 

We're building the most advanced AI models and platforms, making it easy for developers and customers to benefit from AI via the OpenAI API and ChatGPT. Our API also provides developers access to Codex – a model that translates natural language into code – and we partnered with GitHub to create an AI pair programmer, Copilot. We're working to bring other research efforts into the API such as DALL-E 2 (our text to image generator) and CLIP (our state-of-the-art image classifier).

OpenAI Finance is responsible for ensuring the organization is set up for success in pursuit of its mission. The Director of Corporate Accounting works cross-functionally with senior leadership to provide financial insight and analysis to support strategic decision making, keeps the company compliant, and is a financial linchpin for the organization.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Director of Corporate Accounting who will lead OpenAI’s core accounting and financial operations functions. You will oversee monthly close, internal and external reporting, audits, systems, and policies. This role requires deep technical expertise and the ability to solve complex problems across diverse subject areas. 

This strategic, yet hands-on role, will report to the Controller and work closely with the VP Finance, cross-functional executives, and key external partners. You will be a key player in driving the financial success of the organization by building – and sustaining – a world-class finance team.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. 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:

• Oversee core GL accounting teams covering balance sheet, opex and international accounting, and cultivate opportunities for team members’ development and advancement
• Take ownership of the preparation, review, and accuracy of all financial, managerial, and investor reporting
• Support new and existing research and products by working cross-functionally to manage risk, and build and maintain scalable accounting processes
• Identify opportunities for automation of manual processes and lead system implementations to streamline accounting and reporting processes
• Manage key service provider relationships with auditors, outsourced accountants, technical accounting advisory, and strategic partners
• Work with broader OpenAI Finance to analyze financial performance, provide recommendations to senior leadership for improvement, and support for key decision making

We’re looking for a blend of:

• Bachelor's degree with 10+ years of progressive experience in senior accounting leadership roles at some combination of public companies, late-stage startups, and / or public accounting firms
• CPA or CA with a deep understanding of US GAAP and financial reporting requirements for various types of legal entities
• Strong project management skills encompassing attention to detail and ability to prioritize and lead high priority initiatives on concurrent timelines
• Exemplary interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills as demonstrated by the ability to land complex concepts across multiple audiences
• Experience working with modern software and systems, particularly NetSuite and Zip
• Strong analytical skills, including working knowledge of SQL and data analysis tools

You might thrive in this role if:

• You’re an enthusiastic self-starter. You thrive in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment, and expect to lead multiple projects. You take ownership of your work and believe that a job not done well is a job not done.
• You’re excited about new challenges. You don’t have the answers to every question up front, but the process of solving them invigorates you. Novel issues requiring multidimensional knowledge excite you.
• You’re a phenomenal teammate. You’re a strong communicator who can explain complex topics with ease, in any format. You intuitively understand the importance of keeping everyone in the loop, and you take proactive measures to do so. You’re intellectually honest.
• You’re a world-class leader. You mentor those around you, help set agendas, and unblock company-wide issues. You identify opportunities for cross-functional projects and emphatically step in to lead them. Your commitment to quality is unwavering and you coach the work of those around you to join you at this elevated level.
• You’re a builder. You not only embrace the opportunity to have a direct impact on how a company operates, you revel in it. An organization relies on the quality of its foundation and your passion is building strong systems and processes from the ground up.
• You’re passionate about technology and artificial intelligence.