Senior Manager, Occupancy Planning & Workplace Strategy

About the Team OpenAI’s Real Estate & Workplace (REW) team creates and operates the spaces that support our people and our mission. Within REW, the Strategic Occupancy Planning team connects business needs, workplace strategy, and space data to help shape where and how our teams work. We partner closely with business leaders, Finance, People, Workplace Operations, and Design & Construction to anticipate growth, optimize space utilization, and deliver a thoughtful, scalable workplace experience. About the Role We’re looking for an experienced Occupancy Planning & Workplace Strategy Manager to lead strategic space planning for our Go-to-Market (GTM) and General & Administrative (G&A) organizations. In this role, you’ll translate evolving business needs into actionable occupancy strategies, capacity scenarios, and workplace recommendations. You’ll serve as a trusted partner to business leaders, balancing growth projections, operational requirements, and employee experience to inform decisions about how our teams use space. You’ll own planning across a complex, evolving portfolio while leveraging CAFM/IWMS systems and data analytics to drive accurate, scalable decision-making. This role requires a combination of strategic thinking, hands-on technical expertise, and strong cross-functional partnership to turn planning recommendations into operational outcomes. This role is based in San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of three days in the office per week, with approximately 10–20% travel. In This Role, You Will Own strategic occupancy planning for GTM and G&A organizations, translating headcount forecasts, business priorities, and workplace needs into actionable space plans. Develop and evaluate capacity scenarios, neighborhood strategies, team adjacencies, seating models, and space allocation recommendations to support organizational growth. Partner with business leaders and executive stakeholders to understand evolving requirements, communicate trade-offs, and align workplace strategies with business objectives. Collaborate with Finance, People, Analytics, Design & Construction, and Workplace Operations to reconcile forecasts, assess capacity constraints, and guide planning decisions through implementation. Translate workplace needs into practical stacking, blocking, and move plans, ensuring recommendations account for operational feasibility, timing, and employee experience. Leverage CAFM/IWMS platforms and analytical tools to maintain accurate space inventories, floor plans, seating allocations, and utilization data. Identify and resolve space data discrepancies, establish quality controls, and partner with internal system owners and external vendors to improve data reliability. Develop dashboards, planning workflows, and reporting tools that improve visibility into occupancy trends, capacity risks, and portfolio performance. Drive continuous improvement in occupancy planning processes, including opportunities for automation, system enhancements, and scalable planning practices. Support workplace change initiatives by partnering with cross-functional teams to ensure clear communication, coordinated execution, and successful transitions. You Might Thrive in This Role If You Bring 5–8+ years of experience in occupancy planning, workplace strategy, space management, or a related field, with experience independently managing complex, multi-team or multi-site portfolios. Have a strong track record of translating business growth, headcount projections, and workplace requirements into practical, data-informed space strategies. Possess hands-on experience with CAFM/IWMS platforms, including space inventory management, floor plans, seating allocations, data reconciliation, and reporting. Are highly analytical and comfortable developing scenarios, evaluating trade-offs, and translating complex data into clear recommendations for senior stakeholders. Excel at building trusted relationships with business leaders and cross-functional partners, influencing decisions without direct authority. Can balance long-term strategic planning with hands-on execution in a fast-paced environment where priorities and requirements evolve quickly. Have experience supporting workplace transitions, flexible seating strategies, organizational growth, or large-scale space planning initiatives. Communicate clearly and effectively, whether presenting recommendations to executives, documenting planning assumptions, or coordinating implementation across teams. Are comfortable navigating ambiguity, identifying opportunities for process improvement, and building scalable solutions. Experience with OfficeSpace or comparable CAFM/IWMS platforms, CAD or floor-plan tools, business intelligence platforms, system migrations, and vendor management is a plus. 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