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Design Lead

OpenAI

OpenAI

Design
San Francisco, CA, USA
USD 380k-380k / year + Equity
Posted on Dec 19, 2025

Location

San Francisco

Employment Type

Full time

Department

Go To Market

Compensation

  • $380K • Offers Equity

The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. If the role is non-exempt, overtime pay will be provided consistent with applicable laws. In addition to the salary range listed above, total compensation also includes generous equity, performance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees, and the following benefits.

  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts

  • Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)

  • 401(k) retirement plan with employer match

  • Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)

  • Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees

  • 13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)

  • Mental health and wellness support

  • Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage

  • Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth

  • Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible

  • Relocation support for eligible employees

  • Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.

More details about our benefits are available to candidates during the hiring process.

This role is at-will and OpenAI reserves the right to modify base pay and other compensation components at any time based on individual performance, team or company results, or market conditions.

About the team:

OpenAI didn’t begin as a traditional company. It began as an idea: that artificial intelligence could be developed in a way that benefits everyone. As a creative team, our role is to help make sure the work behind that idea is understood, as it leaves the lab and meets the world.
This company works at the frontier of intelligence. Like any frontier, it’s unfinished, constantly shifting, and still being explored. Our job is to stay close to that uncertainty and help shape how this story gets told, in a way that feels grounded and human. We do this through campaigns, launches, films, brand systems, and work that doesn’t fit neatly into any of those categories yet. This team is for people who want to help shape something from the beginning.

About the role:

We’re looking for a Design Lead to join our growing in-house creative team. In this role, you’ll help define and elevate the visual and design language of OpenAI’s biggest creative work — from brand campaigns and product launches to cultural moments, stories and multimedia experiences. You’ll partner closely with design, product, copy, motion, and comms to shape work that is clear, compelling, human-centered, and beautiful.

This is a senior creative leadership role for someone who can set vision, establish design systems and creative direction, and guide work from early concept through execution. You’ll operate with a high degree of autonomy, act as a trusted creative partner to Product, Research and Marketing, and raise the bar on craft, coherence, and ambition across marketing initiatives.

In this role you will:

  • Lead and shape design direction and execution across brand campaigns, product launches, social and high-impact creative work streams.

  • Translate complex ideas, product capabilities, and cultural contexts into visually engaging, intuitive design solutions.

  • Own conceptual development through to high-fidelity execution — including visual systems, interaction patterns, layouts, and design frameworks.

  • Partner deeply with copywriters, motion designers, product designers, and cross-functional partners to ensure cohesive, high-quality work.

  • Set and uphold design standards across deliverables, fostering consistency and craft excellence.

  • Mentor and collaborate with other designers, providing thoughtful feedback and helping grow design capabilities across the team.

  • Drive and evolve best practices for design process, tooling, and collaboration within the Creative Studio.

  • Oversee and support the work of other designers, providing direction, feedback, and creative guidance to ensure high-quality, cohesive output.

You might thrive in this role if you:

  • Bring 10+ years of professional design experience with a strong track record of leading design projects end-to-end (agency, in-house, or studio environments).

  • Have a portfolio that demonstrates excellence in visual/interaction design, systems thinking, and conceptual strength.

  • Are comfortable shaping design work at both strategic and execution levels — from early concept frameworks to detailed production.

  • Communicate design rationale clearly to peers and cross-functional partners.

  • Enjoy iterative collaboration and can navigate ambiguity with creativity and confidence.

  • Are passionate about design as a core contributor to how OpenAI’s work is experienced and understood.

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.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form. 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.

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy

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.

Compensation Range: $380K