Product Policy Biosecurity Policy Manager

OpenAI

Product Policy Manager specializing in Biosecurity at OpenAI. Guiding policies for AI in life sciences while preventing biological misuse.

Posted 6/2/2026full-timeSan Francisco • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesSeniorLead💰 $261,000 - $290,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Provide biosecurity and life sciences policy advice to technical and product teams based on an understanding of model capabilities, biological R&D workflows, abuse pathways, and the practical needs of legitimate scientific users.
Evaluate bio-relevant product launches and model capabilities, including how they may support beneficial biological research, public health, clinical education, drug discovery, biosecurity, and other life sciences use cases, as well as how they could be misused by malicious or irresponsible actors.
Translate biological misuse risk into clear product requirements, launch guidance, enforcement standards, user-facing policy, internal implementation guidance, and reviewer SOPs.
Help define scalable policy frameworks for dual-use biological capabilities, including where to draw boundaries between broadly beneficial biological assistance, higher-risk dual-use support, and activity that should be restricted or disallowed.
Develop operationalizable standards, enforcement protocols, and escalation paths for bio misuse scenarios, including suspicious high-risk dual-use trajectories, account- or organization-level misuse patterns, and ambiguous cases requiring expert judgment.
Partner with Preparedness, Safety Systems, Integrity, User Operations, I2, research, legal, communications, global affairs, and product teams to make principled, timely decisions about biological risk in high-ambiguity situations.
Help design and refine trusted access frameworks for higher-capability biological systems, including actor vetting, institutional legitimacy, governance expectations, deployment suitability, access scoping, re-verification, and escalation obligations.
Support the development of threat models, misuse trajectories, taxonomy updates, account-level review workflows, and measurement approaches that distinguish legitimate scientific activity from concerning misuse over time.
Use production signals, evals, red-team findings, user feedback, and operational data to improve policy quality, measure safeguard effectiveness, and identify emerging risks.
Help OpenAI engage credibly with life sciences organizations, biosecurity experts, public health institutions, and other external stakeholders on best practices for safe AI adoption in biology.
Develop a partnership-informed biosecurity approach by working with external experts, public health institutions, life sciences organizations, and other trusted partners to identify emerging risks, strengthen safe adoption practices, and support broader societal resilience against biological misuse.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Have 7+ years of experience, or equivalent depth, in one or more of the following areas: biosecurity, biosafety, life sciences R&D, synthetic biology, molecular biology, computational biology, public health, biodefense, or biological risk management, as well as product policy, trust and safety, abuse investigations, or a closely related field.
Bring strong technical fluency in one or more biological or biosecurity domains, such as synthetic biology, molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, protein engineering, lab automation, pathogen surveillance, sequence screening, institutional biosafety, biological threat assessment, or life sciences research governance.
Understand the modern biological risk landscape, including how legitimate biological research is conducted, how institutions govern sensitive work, and where AI systems may create both meaningful scientific value and misuse risk.
Can evaluate dual-use biological capabilities with nuance, distinguishing between legitimate scientific work, lower-risk educational or analytical assistance, ambiguous high-friction cases, irresponsible activity, and harmful misuse.
Think in terms of actor, environment, and trajectory — not just prompt content — when assessing risk, including who the user is, what institution they belong to, what governance they operate under, and what pattern of behavior is emerging over time.
Are comfortable turning ambiguous scientific and security questions into practical policy frameworks, access criteria, taxonomies, review rubrics, launch recommendations, and operational guidance.
Communicate clearly with product managers, engineers, researchers, executives, safety experts, security practitioners, life sciences customers, and policy stakeholders.
Use data, expert judgment, operational signals, and user feedback to improve policy quality and evaluate whether safeguards are working in practice.
Are energized by building new frameworks in an emerging area where the right answer may require balancing scientific progress, product usability, institutional trust, and high-consequence safety risk.
Care deeply about enabling beneficial biology and life sciences work while preventing catastrophic misuse and unnecessary biological risk.
Have experience building cross-sector partnerships or strategies that connect technical policy, public health, biosecurity, and institutional governance in service of broader societal resilience.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
401(k) retirement plan with employer match
Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)
Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)
Mental health and wellness support
Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth
Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
Relocation support for eligible employees
Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.

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Hard Skills & Tools

biosecuritybiosafetylife sciences R&Dsynthetic biologymolecular biologycomputational biologypublic healthbiodefensebiological risk managementbioinformatics

Soft Skills

communicationpolicy developmentrisk assessmentcollaborationcritical thinkingproblem-solvingdecision-makingstrategic planningadaptabilitystakeholder engagement