Community Engagement Lead - Ohio

Openai
United States
RemoteCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Aimed at senior community affairs professionals who can navigate complex stakeholder relationships and manage large-scale infrastructure projects.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with experience managing large infrastructure projects and community relations in the US
    — “Proven track record engaging diverse community stakeholders for large infrastructure or technology projects
  • Individuals who can build trust and represent a company in public forums and community events
    — “Represent OpenAI in public forums, hearings, and community events
  • Candidates with a background in economic development and environmental sustainability
    — “Partner with the Economic Development Lead on incentive compliance and community benefits

Things to consider

  • Must comply with legal requirements for background checks and employment eligibility in the US
    — “Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law
  • Role requires handling sensitive political and reputational issues with discretion
    — “Ability to manage sensitive political and reputational issues

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in creating scalable community engagement strategies across geographies
    — “Create a community engagement playbook that can scale across geographies
  • Emphasize your ability to integrate community benefits into development plans
    — “Experience integrating community benefits (workforce, education, infrastructure support) into development strategies
  • Demonstrate your ability to monitor and analyze community sentiment effectively
    — “Monitor community sentiment and advise executives on risks and opportunities
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · CompanyLevel · Mid

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • strong community relationships
  • proactive communications
  • community benefits integration
Typical background
community affairspublic engagementcorporate communications

Skills & requirements

Required

Community EngagementStakeholder ManagementPublic SpeakingCommunicationsReputation Management

Preferred

Economic DevelopmentEnvironmental Stewardship

About the role

Original posting from Openai via Ashby

About the Team

OpenAI, in close collaboration with our capital partners, is embarking on a journey to build the world’s most advanced AI infrastructure ecosystem. The Industrial Compute team is central to this mission, setting the core infra strategy and implementing this vision. From site selection to the buildout process, this team sits at the intersection of commercial, technical, strategy, and operations, interacting with teams and executives inside and outside of OpenAI.

About the Role

The Community Engagement Lead will be the primary bridge between OpenAI and the communities in Ohio. This role ensures that OpenAI builds strong, trust-based relationships with local stakeholders, communicates proactively about our projects, and integrates community priorities into our development approach. The role spans engagement, communications, and reputation management, and will partner closely with the Economic Development and Environmental leads.

Key Responsibilities

  • Build and maintain relationships with local leaders, community organizations, NGOs, and residents.
  • Develop and execute community engagement strategies for new and existing sites.
  • Represent OpenAI in public forums, hearings, and community events.
  • Partner with the Economic Development Lead on incentive compliance and community benefits.
  • Partner with the Environmental Lead on communicating environmental stewardship and sustainability efforts.
  • Develop proactive communications to address concerns, highlight benefits, and reduce risk of opposition.
  • Monitor community sentiment and advise executives on risks and opportunities.
  • Create a community engagement playbook that can scale across geographies.

Qualifications

  • 8+ years in community affairs, public engagement, or corporate communications.
  • Proven track record engaging diverse community stakeholders for large infrastructure or technology projects.
  • Strong public speaking and facilitation skills.
  • Ability to manage sensitive political and reputational issues.
  • Experience integrating community benefits (workforce, education, infrastructure support) into development strategies.
  • Collaborative and adaptable, with experience working across government, community, and corporate teams.

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

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form https://form.asana.com/?d=57018692298241&k=5MqR40fZd7jlxVUh5J-UeA. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link https://form.asana.com/?k=bQ7w9h3iexRlicUdWRiwvg&d=57018692298241.

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy https://cdn.openai.com/policies/global-employee-and-contractor-privacy-policy.pdf

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Source: Openai careers (Ashby)

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