OpenAI needs help reversing the American public’s souring view of data centers.
The leading AI company shared a new job opening over the weekend for a position it called a “community engagement lead.” These new employees would be tasked with talking to local communities in places where it plans to build its Stargate data centers.
One measure of success, it said, would be “reduced friction.”
Tech companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in building data centers to power their products. Local communities, however, are not always so welcoming. Many residents worry that the data centers will drain water supplies, raise electric bills, cause noise, and just generally reduce their quality of life.
AI companies argue that they can mitigate some of these problems by adopting new cooling techniques and paying for their own electricity costs. They also say these projects can create thousands of jobs in local communities, though many of those jobs are in the construction phase, which means they are temporary.
Protests have arisen across the country as communities push back. Prominent businessmen, like “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, who is backing a data center development in Utah, have faced intense opposition.
Building data centers is a near existential requirement for AI companies, whose ever-advancing chatbots and agents require ever-growing amounts of data to work effectively. Some companies, like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are exploring building them in space.
The Stargate project — a partnership between OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and MGX — was announced by President Donald Trump the day after he began his second term. The group plans to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure across the United States.
Stargate data centers are now planned in Texas, Michigan, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Ohio.
In its job posting for the community engagement lead, OpenAI says that getting communities on board with these data centers was “mission-critical.”
“This role ensures that communities understand what we are building, why it matters, and how they can meaningfully benefit from it,” the company said.
OpenAI said potential candidates will be required to be based in, or willing to relocate to, communities where OpenAI is building data center sites. The job pays between $129,600 and $236,000, plus equity.
“The Community Engagement Lead will proactively shape dialogue, surface concerns before they escalate, and embed community priorities into how projects are planned, communicated, and delivered,” it said.
