A $555,000 Job Is Up in OpenAI as Sam Altman Looks to Hire an AI Tech Expert - Here's How to Apply

An end-of-the-year opportunity has come if you are a tech expert looking for a job in AI. The most significant tech role in the industry is now open as OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has gone viral once again with a superb job opening. The big ChatGPT boss, Sam Altman, has announced a new role within the company that comes with a reported annual salary of $555,000 (approx. £412,000), with a caveat: equity options.

Importantly, this is not just another high-paying tech job. It shows a huge admission of the coming from advanced AI systems and a shocking decision by OpenAI to battle those worries head-on. This is because, as the capabilities of AI models develop, so do questions about safety, ethics, cybersecurity and massive impacts on society. Altman's announcement shows that OpenAI is preparing for a future where these questions must be answered by expert leadership, not just random tech heads.

OpenAI's Head of Preparedness Job and What It Means

So, firstly, the big job opportunity is that OpenAI is currently recruiting a new 'Head of Preparedness' to play a central role within its Safety Systems team. This position, which reportedly offers an annual salary of $555,000 (approx £412,000) plus equity, is intended to lead the company's mission to understand and mitigate the risks associated with frontier artificial intelligence technologies.

The announcement came via Altman's social media platform, where he shared that this role is critical, as AI models are beginning to pose real problems even as they unlock powerful capabilities.

Here is his full announcement:

'We are hiring a Head of Preparedness. This is a critical role at an important time; models are improving quickly and are now capable of many great things, but they are also starting to present some real challenges. The potential impact of models on mental health was something we saw a preview of in 2025, we are just now seeing models get so good at computer security they are beginning to find critical vulnerabilities. We have a strong foundation of measuring growing capabilities, but we are entering a world where we need more nuanced understanding and measurement of how those capabilities could be abused, and how we can limit those downsides both in our products and in the world, in a way that lets us all enjoy the tremendous benefits. These questions are hard, and there is little precedent, a lot of ideas that sound good have some real edge cases. If you want to help the world figure out how to enable cybersecurity defenders with cutting edge capabilities while ensuring attackers can't use them for harm, ideally by making all systems more secure, and similarly for how we release biological capabilities and even gain confidence in the safety of running systems that can self-improve, please consider applying. This will be a stressful job, and you'll jump into the deep end pretty much immediately.'

You can apply for the job here.

As per this announcement, the role clearly aligns with OpenAI's primary strategy to ensure that advanced systems are used securely and ethically. Moreover, responsibilities include developing safety evaluations, building threat models and designing mitigation strategies that can be scaled as AI systems evolve. The new hire will lead technical strategy and operational execution of a preparedness framework that addresses the broad spectrum of risks these powerful models may pose.

This acknowledgement by Altman marks a major shift in how OpenAI publicly frames the challenges of advanced AI. Instead of focusing only on innovation and growth, the company is showing that it recognises the need for specific risk management and safety oversight at the highest levels. Furthermore, this announcement comes at a time when AI systems are being examined for potential problems.

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Implications for ChatGPT and the Future of AI

Now that the job opening is clear, the creation of a very specific leadership role for preparedness at OpenAI has some notable implications for the future of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence itself. Mainly, it shows a change towards a more safety-centric method in the development and deployment of AI systems.

So, for ChatGPT users and developers, this could mean more stringent safety rules in future models. Because as AI becomes more powerful, systems like ChatGPT might be capable of tasks that edge closer to autonomous decision-making. So, with specific oversight, OpenAI can build more nuanced evaluation frameworks to assess how these systems behave in real-world contexts. This could help avoid harmful outputs, reduce misinformation, and protect users from being misled by sophisticated but imperfect algorithms.