About the team

OpenAI’s Legal team plays a crucial role in advancing our mission by tackling innovative and fundamental legal issues in AI. The team includes professionals from diverse legal fields-technology, AI, government contracting, privacy, IP, corporate, employment, tax, regulatory, and litigation-who collaborate closely with colleagues across the company.

If you are passionate about helping bring cutting-edge AI technology to the public sector while navigating complex legal and regulatory landscapes, you’ll thrive here.

About the role

We’re seeking a Legal Contracts Manager to support OpenAI for Government’s growing public sector business. This role will manage a wide range of contracting activities with U.S. federal, state, and local government customers and partners.

This role will partner closely with our legal, go-to-market, capture/proposals, and other teams to negotiate agreements, administer existing contracts, establish compliance mechanisms, and generally support the full lifecycle of contract performance. This role requires deep familiarity with government contracting, exceptional attention to detail, and the ability to operate with speed and sound judgment in a fast-moving environment.

This position reports to our Associate General Counsel, Head of Public Sector Legal and is based in Washington D.C.

This role will:

• Manage the full contract lifecycle for government agreements, including NDAs, services agreements, teaming agreements, subcontracts, and order forms.

• Negotiate contracts with federal, state, and local agencies and government integrators, balancing risk management with business objectives.

• Ensure ongoing compliance with contract requirements, including flow-down clauses, reporting obligations, and government-specific certifications (e.g., FAR/DFARS, FedRAMP, CMMC, NIST 800-171).

• Support contract pursuits and proposals, including review of RFP/RFQ terms, development of compliance matrices, and coordination of required representations and certifications.

• Coordinate with internal stakeholders-Legal, Finance, Security, Capture/Proposals, and Product-to ensure contract terms align with OpenAI’s technical capabilities, pricing structures, and security/compliance frameworks.

• Maintain contract records and manage data related to key terms, renewals, and deliverables.

• Develop scalable contracting processes and playbooks to streamline government sales while managing legal and regulatory risk.

• Monitor regulatory developments and advise on implications for government contracts and compliance programs.

We're seeking someone with experience including:

• 7+ years of experience in government contracting, contract management, or technology transactions, with significant exposure to U.S. federal acquisition regulations (FAR/DFARS).

• JD, law degree, or relevant contract management certification (e.g., NCMA CPCM/CCCM) preferred but not required.

• Active U.S. Government TS/SCI clearance.

• Strong background negotiating and managing agreements with U.S. government agencies or prime contractors.

• Familiarity with public sector compliance frameworks (e.g., FedRAMP, NIST 800-171, CMMC, ITAR/EAR, government data rights).

• Demonstrated ability to operate with autonomy and sound judgment in highly technical, fast-moving environments.

• Demonstrated experience using artificial intelligence tools to automate legal and compliance workflows.

• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail, with experience managing complex contract portfolios.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with an ability to distill complex regulatory requirements into actionable guidance for business teams.

• Experience working in a high-growth technology company or government integrator is a strong plus.

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.

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. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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