Associate General Counsel, Non-Profit

About the Team

OpenAI's Legal team plays a crucial role in furthering OpenAI's mission by tackling innovative, fundamental legal issues in AI. If you're passionate about doing significant and unique work as a technology lawyer, this team is for you. The team comprises professionals from diverse fields, including technology, AI, privacy, IP, corporate, employment, tax, regulatory, and litigation.

About the Role

As Associate General Counsel, Non-Profit you will support and lead on a broad range of matters spanning nonprofit tax, governance, and related corporate issues. This role offers a unique opportunity to advise on complex, high-impact legal issues at the intersection of mission, governance, and AI. You will work closely with OpenAI leadership, as well as partner deeply with the OpenAI legal team, to support both the nonprofit and affiliated organizations within the broader OpenAI enterprise.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week.

In this role, you will:

• Serve as the primary legal advisor on nonprofit tax, governance, and fiduciary matters for OpenAI’s affiliated nonprofit. Advise on compliance with federal and state nonprofit law, tax-exempt status requirements, grants administration compliance, private benefit and excess benefit rules, and mission-aligned governance.

• Lead nonprofit governance initiatives, including advising on governance matters, conflicts-of-interest processes, and implementing and operationalizing policies required for a complex, high-profile nonprofit operating alongside a PBC affiliate.

• Advise on the legal and tax implications of transactions and arrangements between the nonprofit and affiliate entities, including shared support services, funding, IP and commercial relationships, and other intercompany matters.

• Advise and partner with the OpenAI legal team on general corporate, governance, and disclosure matters that require coordination with the Foundation, including public disclosures, compensation matters, governance initiatives, and other enterprise-level legal issues.

• Partner closely with Finance, Tax, Accounting, Investor Relations, and other Legal teams to design and maintain compliant structures, processes, and controls across OpenAI, including entity management, subsidiary governance, and regulatory compliance.

• Develop and scale legal frameworks and operating processes for nonprofit governance, tax compliance, and related corporate matters, in close collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders, to support the organization’s growth, complexity, and public profile.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have 12+ years of legal experience, including significant experience advising nonprofits on tax, governance, and compliance matters. Experience spanning both nonprofit and affiliated organizations is strongly preferred.

• Have deep expertise in nonprofit tax and regulatory issues, nonprofit governance, and the design and operation of compliance programs for complex, high-visibility nonprofit organizations.

• Exercise sound judgment in ambiguous, high-stakes situations and are comfortable serving as a trusted advisor to senior leaders and boards on important governance matters.

• Take strong ownership of your work, are intellectually curious, and are energized by novel legal issues at the intersection of technology, mission, and organizational structure.

• Communicate clearly and effectively, manage multiple complex workstreams in parallel, and collaborate well across legal, finance, tax, and other cross-functional teams.

• Operate with humility, integrity, and a strong sense of responsibility to mission, stakeholders, and the public interest.

• Hold a JD and are licensed to practice law in California, or are eligible to become licensed.

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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