Senior Manager of Procure to Pay Operations at OpenAI

About the Role

We’re looking for a seasoned Procure to Pay Operations Manager who will lead our procure to pay processes and systems. This role requires a blend of procurement request management, systems management, and accounts payable management, with additional oversight on our travel and expense process. This role requires someone who can build, scale, and adapt our processes to support our organizations rapid growth.

This strategic, yet hands-on role, will report to the Head of Procurement, interfacing closely with suppliers, internal stakeholders, and leading external contractors executing our processes. You will be instrumental in enhancing the financial workflow of the organization by refining and sustaining a streamlined Procure to Pay operations process.

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:

• Devise and implement a holistic strategy for our P2P operations, aligning with OpenAI’s broader financial and operational objectives.
• Take ownership of the month-end close process for Purchase Order accruals and Accounts Payable reporting and reconciliations, ensuring accuracy and timeliness in financial reporting.
• Support the audit process by taking ownership of Procure to Pay cycle requests, ensuring thorough and timely responses to audit inquiries and maintaining organized documentation for audit trails.
• Manage and optimize our P2P systems - ZIP, NetSuite, and Navan (for T&E), ensuring seamless procurement and financial operations.
• Take a hands-on role in managing outsourced AP contractors, including overseeing coding review and processing payment batches, to ensure accuracy and compliance in line with OpenAI’s financial policies and procedures.
• Oversee the travel and expense program, promoting compliance with our financial policies while ensuring timely and accurate processing and reconciliation. Aim to maximize the value from our T&E budget and provide the best traveler experience. 
• Engage with internal customers across various departments, understanding their procurement needs, and ensuring a streamlined procurement request and approval process.
• Work closely with Legal and Security to ensure that vendor reviews are complete and timely.
• Ensure we meet processing SLAs such as: request cycle time, percentage of invoices under PO, and percentage of digital invoices.
• Lead reporting and analytics initiatives within the P2P domain, generating insightful reports and dashboards to monitor performance, identify trends, and support data-driven decision-making aligned with OpenAI's financial and operational goals.
• Manage the performance of external contractors who fulfill and execute processes within the procure to pay cycle, ensuring adherence to defined standards and continuous performance improvement.

We’re looking for a blend of:

• Bachelor's degree with 10+ years of progressive experience in procurement and accounts payable, preferably within technology-centric organizations or late-stage startups.
• Solid understanding of Procure to Pay (P2P) processes, systems, and best practices.
• 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 interact effectively with both internal teams and external partners.
• Experience working with modern P2P software and systems, particularly ZIP, NetSuite, and Navan.
• Strong analytical skills, including a propensity for data-driven decision-making and experience with reporting and analytics tools to monitor P2P performance metrics.
• Proven experience in managing Travel & Expense (T&E) processes, with a focus on policy compliance, process efficiency, and maximizing value from the T&E budget while ensuring a positive experience for travelers.

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.