Program Director, High-Burden Diseases

About OpenAI Foundation: AI is already changing how people work, learn, and access care. It has the potential to unlock extraordinary benefits—faster medical breakthroughs, accelerated scientific discovery, more personalized services in healthcare and education, new tools for creativity and invention, higher productivity and economic growth, improved public services like transportation systems, and more. The Foundation aims to enable the use of AI to find solutions to humanity’s hardest problems, transform capabilities, and deliver real benefits in people’s lives—while working to identify and address new challenges as AI advances. Over the next year, the Foundation expects to invest at least $1 billion across life sciences, curing diseases, jobs and economic impact, AI resilience, and community programs.

About The Role

The OpenAI Foundation is building its life sciences program to accelerate progress on curing diseases and improving human health. The program’s initial focus areas include AI for Alzheimer’s, Public Data for Health, and High-Burden Diseases. As Program Director, High-Burden Diseases, you will help build this work from the ground up. High-Burden Diseases are defined as those causing over 500,000 deaths and/or 25 million DALYs annually, often facing market failures and underinvestment in R&D. Examples include tuberculosis, newborn mortality, stroke, and Hepatitis B. This founding role involves shaping strategy, sourcing opportunities, engaging with external organizations, and deploying resources globally to apply AI and data in preventing and treating these diseases.

This is a generalist role requiring flexibility and judgment to operate across scientific, strategic, and grantmaking questions. You may continue as a cross-cutting generalist or grow into a specialized focus area as the portfolio expands. The role is based in San Francisco, CA (strongly preferred), with a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and some travel to conferences in the U.S. and internationally.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with the Head of High-Burden Diseases and team members to support strategy, grantmaking execution, and portfolio management.
• Source, evaluate, and recommend grants and funding opportunities across the High-Burden Diseases program.
• Research new disease or technology areas to determine Foundation focus and develop investment theses.
• Engage with the external ecosystem, including researchers, nonprofits, startups, academic centers, funders, and grantee organizations worldwide.
• Build and maintain relationships with leaders in scientific and health-related fields relevant to the Foundation’s work.
• Conduct diligence on organizations, projects, and leaders, assessing scientific merit, execution capability, and potential for real-world impact.
• Write clear internal recommendations, briefs, and strategy memos to support decision-making.
• Identify gaps in the current ecosystem and develop ideas for new efforts, partnerships, or field-building initiatives.
• Support the creation of new initiatives from zero-to-one, including shaping concepts, convening stakeholders, and standing up efforts.
• Potentially take on broader ownership of a growing body of work over time.
• Represent the Foundation externally to build credibility, source opportunities, and strengthen the field.

Qualifications

• 10-15+ years of relevant experience preferred, with a background in biology, chemistry, translational medicine, drug development, clinical practice, global health, biotechnology, venture or grant investing in life sciences, or related fields.
• Ability to engage credibly across scientific and strategic topics, even without deep specialization in each.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate scientific, technical, or organizational opportunities and make strong recommendations.
• Experience engaging with external experts, institutions, and senior stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including synthesizing complex information clearly and persuasively.
• Strong strategic judgment combined with a bias toward execution and ability to move quickly.
• Ability to work effectively in a highly ambiguous, evolving environment.
• High degree of ownership, discretion, and accountability.
• Deep motivation to accelerate progress in life sciences and contribute to the Foundation’s mission.

Skills

• Excited to build a new program from the ground up.
• Highly flexible and comfortable operating across multiple scientific and technical domains in a fast-moving environment.
• Ability to turn broad, ambiguous problems into clear recommendations and concrete action.
• Strong judgment about people, organizations, and scientific opportunities across life sciences and health.
• Energized by learning quickly, context-switching, and developing independent views.
• Global mindset with understanding of lower and middle-income country (LMIC) contexts.
• Curiosity and excitement about AI’s role in R&D and health interventions to accelerate progress in disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.
• Balances strategic thinking with practical execution and detail-oriented follow-through.
• Comfortable making recommendations in areas of uncertainty and incomplete information.
• Maturity and adaptability to work closely with leadership while operating with substantial autonomy.
• Excited to work as a cross-cutting generalist or grow into ownership of a new focus area over time.
• Deep care for the Foundation’s mission and accelerating progress against major health challenges.

Pay

The annual base salary range for this role is $300,000 to $370,000 USD. Actual base salary will be determined based on job-related factors, including the candidate’s relevant experience, skills, expertise, the scope of the role, and work location. This range does not include benefits or other eligible compensation.