Artificial intelligence
10 OpenAI engineering leaders
These ten OpenAI engineering leaders include OpenAI's CTO of Applications and its Chief Technology Officer for Compute, along with heads of engineering, infrastructure, hardware and data centers. Readers can learn how OpenAI builds and scales the software, compute and data center systems behind its models and products.
Professionals to explore
01—10Chris Malone
LinkedInExperience: Head of Data Centers · OpenAI
Head of Data Centers at OpenAI since March 2025, a Director-level role based in San Francisco. He was a Distinguished Engineer at Meta from 2020 to 2025, Distinguished Engineer & Senior Director at Google from 2008 to 2020 and System Architect at Hewlett-Packard Company from 1997 to 2007.
Dave Cummings
LinkedInExperience: Head of Engineering, Apple Integration · OpenAI
Head of Engineering, Apple Integration at OpenAI since May 2024, a Head-level Engineering and Technical role. At OpenAI he was also Engineering Manager, ChatGPT (2022–2024), Tech Lead, DALL E (2022) and Software Engineer, Core API (2020–2022), and he was a Senior Software Engineer, Trust at Airbnb from 2018 to 2020.
David Lau
LinkedInExperience: VP Engineering · OpenAI
VP Engineering at OpenAI since January 2025; his profile headline describes his work as frontier ML systems engineering at OpenAI. At Tesla he was VP Software Engineering (2017–2025), Senior Director of Firmware, Platforms, and Diagnostics (2015–2017) and Director, Firmware Engineering and System Integration (2014–2015).
Jacqueline Sansom
LinkedInExperience: Director of Software Engineering · OpenAI
Director of Software Engineering at OpenAI since November 2023, a Director-level Engineering and Technical role. At Twitter she was Senior Director of Software Engineering (June to November 2023) and Director of Software Engineering (March to June 2023), and she was Director of Software Engineering at Apple from 2021 to 2022.
Paul Ashbourne
LinkedInExperience: Head of Agent Infrastructure · OpenAI
Head of Agent Infrastructure at OpenAI since April 2025; his profile says the team builds systems that enable training and deployment of AI agents, working hand-in-hand with researchers. At OpenAI he was also Team Lead, Research ACE (2024–2025), and he was Director of Engineering, Infrastructure at Embark Trucks (acquired by Applied Intuition) from 2020 to 2023.
Richard Ho
LinkedInExperience: VP, Hardware · OpenAI
VP, Hardware at OpenAI since July 2026, after serving as Head of Hardware at OpenAI from November 2023 to July 2026. He was Senior Vice President, Silicon and Software Engineering at Lightmatter in 2023 and VP, Hardware Engineering at Lightmatter from 2022 to 2023; his headline cites ML for chip design and past work on Google TPU.
Spas Lazarov
LinkedInExperience: Head of Data Center Engineering · OpenAI
Head of Data Center Engineering at OpenAI since January 2026, a Head-level Engineering and Technical role; he also lists Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since June 2025. He was Director Data Center Engineering at Apple from 2014 to 2025 and Director, Critical Power Systems Engineering at GE from 1997 to 2008.
Uday Ruddarraju
LinkedInExperience: Chief Technology Officer, Compute · OpenAI
Chief Technology Officer, Compute at OpenAI since July 2026, after a year as Head of Compute and Infrastructure at OpenAI (July 2025 to July 2026). He was Head of Infrastructure Engineering (xAI and X) at SpaceXAI from 2024 to 2025 and Senior Director of Engineering & Head of Infrastructure at Robinhood from 2023 to 2024.
Venkat Venkataramani
LinkedInExperience: VP, App Infra · OpenAI
VP, App Infra at OpenAI since June 2024. He was Co-Founder & CEO of Rockset (acquired by OpenAI) from 2016 to 2024, and Engineering Director at Facebook from 2012 to 2015, where he says he managed engineering teams that built Facebook's online data systems.
Vijaye Raji
LinkedInExperience: CTO of Applications · OpenAI
CTO of Applications at OpenAI since September 2025. He was Founder & CEO of Statsig from 2021 to 2025, and at Facebook he was VP, and Head of Entertainment (2019–2021), VP, and Head of Gaming (2017–2019) and Head of Facebook Seattle (2015–2021); his profile also lists a Director, and Head of Engineering role in Seattle from 2014 to 2017.
Choose the right perspective
Match the person's area to your question, since product engineering, compute and data center infrastructure, and hardware each involve different constraints and tradeoffs. Look at where each person worked before OpenAI, because that experience often shapes how they approach scaling problems.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How does OpenAI plan compute and data center capacity ahead of new model launches?
- 02How are engineering teams at OpenAI organized between research, infrastructure and product work?
- 03What infrastructure choices matter most when serving large models to millions of users?
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot and may describe past or present roles. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.
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