OpenAI kicks off India hiring with sales leadership roles; first office to open by end of 2025

OpenAI has officially started hiring in India, with three key roles listed on its careers page: Account Director, Digital Natives; Account Director, Large Enterprise; and Account Director, Strategics.

These positions are based in New Delhi and focus on sales leadership and customer engagement for the company’s products and services.

What are the roles?


The Digital Natives role is for managing portfolios in tech-forward client segments, the Large Enterprise position is to oversee relationships with major business clients, and Strategics is for strategic accounts with complex, large-scale AI deployments.

This marks the company's first hiring drive in India after it announced on Thursday that it plans to open its inaugural office in the country, which it claims is its chatbot ChatGPT's second-largest market. The move has drawn attention from industry, government, and the global tech community.

With the Indian office set to become operational by the end of 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman highlighted the scale and ambition driving this expansion. "Opening our first office and building a local team is an important first step in our commitment to make advanced AI more accessible across the country and to build AI for India and with India," he said in a statement.

He is also set to visit India in September. "ai adoption in india has been amazing to watch--chatgpt users grew 4x in the past year--and we are excited to invest much more in india!" he wrote in a post on X.

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw welcomed OpenAI’s entry, stating, “As part of the IndiaAI Mission, we are building the ecosystem for trusted and inclusive AI. We welcome OpenAI’s partnership in advancing this vision to ensure the benefits of AI reach every citizen.”

OpenAI's India play

The ChatGPT maker is zeroing in on India. In a recent podcast with Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath, Altman said the country may become the biggest market for the company, adding that ChatGPT's latest model GPT-5 was built based on feedback from Indian users as well.

OpenAI introduced a new, more affordable subscription tier in India called ChatGPT Go, priced at Rs 399 per month (around $4.60). It's a significant upgrade over the free version and is designed to give Indian users wider access to some of ChatGPT’s most popular features.

This comes after Altman met with Vaishnaw earlier this year and discussed a plan to create a low-cost AI ecosystem.

The launch of ChatGPT Go comes at a time when other AI companies are also looking to attract Indian users. Perplexity recently partnered with Airtel to offer free Pro subscriptions, while Google has introduced a year-long free AI Pro plan for Indian students.