The veteran tech leader, who has held senior roles at Google, Meta, Palantir and Roblox over a 25-year career, steps in as OpenAI scales aggressively ahead of a potential $100 billion funding round and a future IPO.

OpenAI has named Indian-origin executive Arvind KC as its new Chief People Officer, the company has announced. KC will oversee hiring, orientation and employee development as the ChatGPT maker continues to expand. He will report to Jason Kwon, OpenAI's Chief Strategy Officer.

The appointment signals a deliberate choice of someone who straddles the worlds of engineering and human capital - a rare combination at a moment when OpenAI's internal headcount and external ambitions are both growing at extraordinary speed.

The hire follows turnover in the role. OpenAI's previous Chief People Officer, Julia Villagra, left the company in August, prompting a search for a successor amid intensifying competition for artificial intelligence talent in Silicon Valley. The months-long search ended with KC, a figure whose resume spans some of the most consequential tech companies of the last two decades.

From Maharashtra to Meta, Google and Roblox: KC's Career Journey

He began his career in supply chain systems within the semiconductor industry, developing early expertise in managing complex operational processes before moving into broader technology and people leadership roles.

KC earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University Institute of Chemical Technology in Maharashtra, and later completed an MBA from Santa Clara University. That combination of a hard-science foundation with business training shaped a career that moved fluidly between engineering depth and organisational design.

Over a career spanning more than 25 years, he has held senior leadership roles at Roblox, Google, Palantir Technologies and Meta, helping build both products and the teams behind them at scale. At Palantir, he served as Chief Information Officer and Head of People Operations, overseeing technology strategy and organisational systems. His experience spans internal product development, IT, information security and engineering leadership at global technology companies.

Most recently, he served as Chief People and Systems Officer at US-listed gaming platform Roblox, before making his move to the frontlines of the AI industry.

What KC will do at OpenAI

KC's role will be to help OpenAI grow in a way that supports the people doing the work - from the foundations of hiring, onboarding and development, to the systems and policies that make it easier to collaborate, move quickly and sustain high performance.

OpenAI has made clear this is not a conventional HR appointment. The company said the Chief People Officer position is central to navigating how artificial intelligence changes work processes, and that it plans to develop approaches for role evolution, skills development and employee re-skilling as AI tools become more integrated into daily operations. In other words, the person in KC's role must help OpenAI model, from the inside, the very future it is selling to the world.

Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI, said, "We believe the way we scale OpenAI should reflect the future we're helping to create. KC will play a key role in ensuring our people processes, policies, and systems match our ambition, while preserving the culture and operating principles that have helped us get here."

KC himself struck a forward-looking note. "This is a moment where every organisation is being asked to rethink how work happens, what teams need, how people grow, and how to adapt as the tools change. I'm excited to join OpenAI as we work through those questions ourselves, and alongside our ecosystem of users, customers, and partners building the future with us," he said.

KC joins the growing Indian-origin leadership cohort

Arvind KC joins a growing group of Indian-origin leaders at OpenAI, including Vijaye Raji, Chief Technology Officer for Applications, and Srinivas Narayanan as Vice President. His appointment reinforces a broader pattern of Indian-origin executives ascending to C-suite and senior leadership positions across the top tier of Silicon Valley's AI companies.