Technical Program Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering - Tokyo

About the Team

Over the past year, we have experienced a significant increase in demand for OpenAI's hands-on technical expertise to translate abstract ideas into production applications. We’ve established a Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team who will work closely with our most strategic customers to deeply understand their use cases and design, build, and implement products for them. As one of the founding Technical Program Managers (TPM) on this team, you will partner with FDE to run complex, multi-team projects. You will help deploy solutions on customer infrastructure for the world's most influential businesses, driving real business impact through our newest models and our own innovations in technical delivery

About the Role

We are looking for technical program managers to drive large-scale technical programs that support OpenAI’s most strategic customers. As a TPM, you will work closely with Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE) to manage programs that deliver real customer impact, ensuring projects are well-scoped, effectively executed, drive customer outcomes, and aligned with OpenAI’s goals. You will partner with researchers, partner leads, and FDE to initiate projects, define ambitious goals and milestones, and coordinate execution across multiple teams. You will also work closely with customers and other internal stakeholders, such as Applied Product and Engineering, to drive initiatives forward.

This role is based in Tokyo. 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:

• Embed deeply with strategic customers to understand their business challenges, design solutions, and scope technical requirements in detail.

• Successfully deliver high-profile, complex technical projects against tight deadlines, managing dependencies across multiple teams.

• Effectively partner with FDE, research/applied teams, internal/external partners, and leadership, communicating progress, status, and risk effectively to all stakeholders.

• Increase structure in logistical processes throughout the entire lifecycle of development, creating technical roadmaps with milestones and coordinating across teams to deliver them at all stages.

• Design and implement simple, scalable processes that solve complex problems, adapting program management frameworks and using KPIs to achieve goals.

• Contribute to internal knowledge bases, codifying best practices and sharing insights gained from customer engagements to scale the Forward Deployed Engineering and Technical Program Management functions.

You’ll thrive in this role if you:

• Have 7+ years experience as a Technical Program Manager or similar role, managing complex technical programs at a large scale. Experience working with strategic customers and partners is valued.

• Are willing to travel up to 50% and work on-site with customers to build strong relationships and deeply understand their needs.

• Strong track of execution in delivering ambitious goals on complex cross-functional projects.

• Interest in AI/ML and willingness to immerse yourself in your team’s knowledge domain.

• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify risks and develop effective mitigation strategies.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with stakeholders at all levels.

• Have a bias for action and willingness to work iteratively with your customers to deliver the right solution that solves their problem.