OpenAI hires leaders from Meta, Netflix, Google and AWS to scale India operations

OpenAI is rapidly expanding its India operations through a broad leadership hiring strategy that has brought in senior executives from Meta, Netflix, Google, AWS, Spotify, Intel, WhatsApp and PayU as the company shifts from early-stage market entry towards long-term operational scale.

The hiring pattern reflects a coordinated build-out across marketing, communications, policy, enterprise sales, compute infrastructure and startup ecosystems, positioning India as both a major adoption market and an execution hub within OpenAI’s broader Asia-Pacific strategy.

The company is also preparing to expand its physical footprint in India with planned offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru alongside its existing New Delhi base.

APAC leadership structure places India at centre of expansion

At the regional level, Kiran Mani was appointed Managing Director for Asia Pacific to oversee OpenAI’s expansion across key regional markets including India, Japan and Indonesia.

Before joining OpenAI, Mani held leadership roles across Android and Google Play in APAC and previously worked at Microsoft and IBM.

His appointment aligns with OpenAI’s publicly stated India strategy outlined in its February 2026 blog, “Introducing OpenAI for India”, where chief executive Sam Altman said: “India is already leading the way in AI adoption… we’re working together to build the infrastructure, skills, and local partnerships needed to build AI with India, for India, and in India.”

The statement positioned India not only as a user market but also as a development and ecosystem partner in OpenAI’s broader global AI strategy.

Leadership hires span policy, marketing and communications

Within India, OpenAI has assembled leadership across several operational functions.

Pragya Mishra, Head of Strategy & Global Affairs, currently leads policy and institutional engagement. She previously served as OpenAI’s Lead for Public Policy & Partnerships in India and earlier worked at Truecaller and WhatsApp India across communications, regulation and platform trust.

Sheeladitya Mohanty, Head of Marketing for India, joined from Meta AI and Facebook, where he worked on APAC product marketing, regional growth initiatives and platform transitions.

Akash Iyer, India Social Lead at OpenAI, joined from Netflix after spending nearly seven years across entertainment marketing and platform social strategy. His earlier experience includes roles at BuzzFeed and SportsKeeda.

Communications operations are being led by Vasundhara Mudgil, Head of Communications for India, who previously led Spotify India’s communications during its market-entry phase and earlier worked at Intel Corporation and Burson.

Enterprise and compute capabilities expand

OpenAI has also strengthened leadership across enterprise sales and AI infrastructure.

Nitin Bawankule, Head of Enterprise Sales for India, brings experience across Google, AWS and The Walt Disney Company. At AWS, he worked across enterprise cloud and AI adoption spanning telecom, retail, logistics and media sectors.

Sachin Katti joined OpenAI in a compute-focused role after serving as Chief Technology & AI Officer at Intel, where he also led the company’s Network and Edge Group.

Katti has additionally held academic and research roles at Stanford University, UC Berkeley and MIT, while also building deep-tech ventures including Uhana and Kumu Networks.

The infrastructure-focused hiring reflects OpenAI’s increasing emphasis on compute systems, enterprise AI deployment and operational scalability.

Startup ecosystem and people operations gain focus

OpenAI’s India build-out also includes startup ecosystem engagement and organisational scaling.

Arjun Gupta, AI Deployment Engineer at OpenAI, previously co-founded AuraML, a startup focused on synthetic data and robotics simulation infrastructure. He also worked at Josh Talks and contributed to open-source systems including Apache Drill.

Sanya Arora, who leads GTM for Startups at OpenAI, joined from PayU, where she worked across startup partnerships, fintech marketing and go-to-market initiatives.

Globally, OpenAI’s people operations continue to be overseen by Arvind KC, Chief People Officer, who previously held leadership roles at Roblox, Google, Palantir Technologies and Facebook.

India operations move beyond market-entry phase

The breadth of OpenAI’s hiring indicates that the company’s India strategy is evolving into a long-term operational build rather than a limited market expansion effort.

The leadership structure now spans enterprise adoption, communications, government engagement, compute infrastructure, startup partnerships and ecosystem development, creating a multi-layered execution network across India and Asia-Pacific.

Industry observers view India as one of the most important global growth markets for AI adoption because of its developer base, startup ecosystem and rapidly expanding enterprise technology demand.

OpenAI’s current hiring strategy suggests the company is positioning itself not only to expand commercial adoption in India but also to participate more deeply in the country’s AI infrastructure, policy and developer ecosystems as competition intensifies across the generative AI industry.