Product Cost Management Lead - AI Infrastructure

About the Role

OpenAI is seeking a Product Cost Management Lead to own the official costed bill of materials (BOM), system and cluster cost and price baseline, and platform-to-platform total cost of ownership (TCO) for our 1P AI infrastructure. You will turn component, system, POD, manufacturing, deployment, DC, service, and lifecycle inputs into a trusted view of product economics that informs technical and business decisions, including transition timing.

You will partner with Engineering, Strategic Sourcing, Manufacturing-partner management, Finance, Planning, Supply Chain Program Management, Operations Program Management, and infrastructure teams to evaluate engineering / design changes, compare alternatives, identify cost-reduction opportunities, and track realized benefits. This is an individual contributor role with broad cross-functional ownership.

Responsibilities

• Own the official costed BOM and system/pod roll-up by platform, generation, configuration, build phase, volume, and mix.
• Maintain version control and traceability to quotes, source owners, assumptions, and engineering revisions.
• Publish and maintain the system/pod cost and price baseline, reconciling component pricing and manufacturing-partner inputs with approved configurations and planning assumptions.
• Build platform-to-platform TCO comparisons covering component content, non-recurring engineering, tooling, manufacturing labor and overhead, yield, scrap, test, logistics, deployment, housing and site costs, power and cooling, networking, spares, service, warranty, and lifecycle costs.
• Partner with housing and site teams to integrate their cost inputs into product economics, documenting scope, timing, allocation assumptions, and gaps so platform comparisons are consistent and avoid double counting.
• Quantify the cost impact of engineering change orders and notices (ECOs/ECNs), architecture, specification, configuration, and qualification changes before approval.
• Assess recurring and one-time costs, implementation timing, inventory exposure, and expected benefits.
• Develop a prioritized cost-reduction, value-engineering, and second-source opportunity funnel with Engineering, Strategic Sourcing, and manufacturing-partner management.
• Evaluate qualification costs, investment, payback, supply improvements, and execution risk.
• Analyze actual, forecast, quoted, committed, and purchase-price costs against the baseline.
• Explain material variances, identify root causes, and track recovery actions with accountable owners and dates.
• Build sensitivity and scenario analyses for supplier and manufacturing-partner options, capacity, volume and mix, yield, configuration, site, deployment timing, and lifecycle tradeoffs.
• Present clear recommendations with assumptions, confidence ranges, and decision deadlines.
• Validate savings and cost avoidance with Finance and accountable source owners.
• Distinguish identified opportunities, approved actions, and realized benefits, including offsets and implementation costs.
• Establish cost-data definitions, BOM hierarchy, allocation methods, currency and volume assumptions, refresh expectations, and change-control processes.
• Flag stale, incomplete, or unsupported inputs before they affect decisions.
• Lead recurring product-cost and TCO reviews.
• Publish concise cost bridges, opportunity updates, risks, and decision packages while retaining the supporting detail needed for technical and financial review.
• Build scalable models, reporting, and data workflows that improve baseline completeness, refresh speed, analysis turnaround, and decision quality as the hardware portfolio grows.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in hardware product costing, cost engineering, supply chain finance, manufacturing cost analysis, or a related role supporting complex technology products.
• Experience building and maintaining multi-level costed BOMs, system cost roll-ups, and lifecycle or TCO models across product development, production ramp, and sustaining operations.
• Strong understanding of hardware cost drivers, including component pricing, manufacturing labor and overhead, NRE, tooling, yield, scrap, test, logistics, and service costs.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate engineering changes, second-source options, and cost-reduction opportunities using comparable scenarios and transparent assumptions.
• Advanced spreadsheet and quantitative modeling skills, with disciplined data reconciliation, version control, and source traceability.
• Ability to turn incomplete or changing technical and commercial inputs into defensible analysis, identify uncertainty, and drive input gaps to closure.
• Strong cross-functional influence and communication skills, including concise leadership recommendations and detailed working sessions with engineering, sourcing, manufacturing, and finance teams.
• High ownership and sound judgment in a fast-moving environment with evolving requirements and competing priorities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI infrastructure, hyperscale data centers, custom silicon, servers, networking, storage, or rack-scale systems.
• Experience analyzing JDM, CM, or ODM cost structures and open-book manufacturing models.
• Familiarity with DC and site economics, power and cooling, deployment timing, spares, and service costs in infrastructure TCO.
• Experience with ERP, MRP, and PLM systems, BOM change control, and business intelligence or automation/AI tools.
• A background in engineering, finance, supply chain, manufacturing, or a related analytical discipline.