Technical Accounting Lead, Ads Revenue

About the Team

OpenAI Finance ensures the organization is positioned for long-term success as we pursue our mission. The Revenue team plays a critical role in enabling OpenAI to scale commercial offerings by overseeing billing operations, deal desk, revenue systems, revenue accounting, and controllership. We work cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Go-To-Market, Tax, Legal, and Technical Accounting to support new monetization strategies, improve operational efficiency, and maintain financial integrity as the business grows.

About the Role

This senior leader will own key elements of Ads revenue accounting from technical assessment through operational execution. The role will guide accounting for products, pricing, contracts, incentives, credits, refunds, makegoods, international expansion, and new go-to-market motions. It will establish governance and translate approved accounting positions into launch, billing, data, close, reconciliation, and control requirements. Success requires deep technical revenue expertise, strong business partnership, and the ability to build durable 0-to-1 processes in a fast-changing environment.

Advertising is a critical and growing monetization vector for OpenAI, and this role will help shape the financial foundations that enable Ads to scale responsibly and transparently.

This role can be based in San Francisco or New York City. 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:

- Lead technical accounting assessments for Ads products and commercial arrangements, including performance obligations, variable consideration, allocation, principal-versus-agent, collectibility, contract modifications, refunds, incentives, credits, makegoods, and revenue presentation.

- Own and continuously evolve Ads revenue accounting policies and operating guidance as product behavior, pricing, contracting, incentive programs, and billing models change.

- Establish governance for new products and accounting decisions, including intake, decision rights, materiality and escalation thresholds, launch approvals, policy versioning, decision logs, and post-launch monitoring.

- Translate accounting conclusions into clear requirements for product design, contracting, billing, data, estimates, close, reconciliations, controls, and reporting.

- Own the operating cadence for incentive and makegood accounting, invoice readiness, accruals and reserves, settlements, reconciliations, GL tie-outs, flux analysis, reporting, and control evidence.

- Partner with Ads Product, Engineering, Data, Finance Engineering, Sales, Deal Desk, Legal, Tax, Billing, and Technical Accounting on launches, enterprise negotiations, and international expansion.

- Prepare concise technical memos and audit-ready support; align novel or material conclusions with Corporate Technical Accounting and external auditors.

- Use data, AI, and automation to improve research, monitoring, policy maintenance, issue tracking, documentation, and repeatable Finance workflows with appropriate review controls.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

- 10+ years of progressive experience in revenue accounting, including direct ownership of complex ASC 606 judgments and operational execution.

- Demonstrated leadership to independently set direction, prioritize across competing risks, and influence senior cross-functional stakeholders.

- Experience with digital advertising, adtech, marketplaces, payments, usage-based services, or another high-volume transaction environment.

- Strong command of variable consideration, principal-versus-agent, contract modifications, incentives and credits, collectibility, estimates, and revenue presentation.

- Track record building 0-to-1 accounting processes, governance, close mechanisms, reconciliations, and controls that scale.

- Ability to turn technical conclusions into practical product, contract, billing, data, and operating requirements.

- Clear, concise written and executive communication, including audit-ready documentation and evidence-based recommendations.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Experience supporting global launches, multiple currencies, international contracting entities, intercompany considerations, or localized billing models.

- Experience applying AI or automation within Finance while maintaining review, validation, and control standards.

- Experience partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Data, or Finance systems teams.

- Experience developing or leading high-performing accounting teams or distributed operating groups.

- Background in public-company controllership, technical accounting, audit, or similarly rigorous control environments.

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 https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf.

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.

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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.