OpenAI Head of Preparedness role signals escalating frontier AI risks

OpenAI creating a high‑status, highly paid Head of Preparedness role is a concrete marker of where we are in the AGI race. Preparedness is no longer a side project for cautious researchers; it’s being elevated to a C‑suite‑adjacent responsibility with direct influence over how and when frontier models ship. The job description makes that explicit: own the preparedness strategy end‑to‑end, design capability evaluations, build threat models and safeguards for cyber, bio and self‑improving systems, and feed those results straight into launch decisions. ([openai.com](https://openai.com/careers/head-of-preparedness-san-francisco/?utm_source=openai))

This tells us two things. First, OpenAI expects capabilities to keep climbing fast enough that catastrophic‑scale risks need an operational owner, not just a policy document. Second, the company is betting that institutionalizing internal oversight can substitute, at least for now, for external regulation of frontier labs. Media framing around the “stressful” nature of the role and the $555k salary underscores just how politically and technically charged this remit is. ([timesofindia.indiatimes.com](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/555000-pay-package-and-equity-chatgpt-maker-openai-hires-for-head-of-preparedness-role/amp_articleshow/126212355.cms?utm_source=openai))

Competitively, this move pressures Anthropic, Google DeepMind and others to show they too are staffing safety and risk at senior levels, not just publishing nice‑sounding frameworks. For governments, it’s a reminder that self‑regulation is evolving—but also that crucial decisions about acceptable risk remain concentrated inside a handful of private companies racing to build more powerful agents.