Srinivas Narayanan, a senior engineering leader at OpenAI, has announced that he will step down from his role by the end of next week.

His departure comes at a time when the company is rapidly expanding its enterprise-focused AI offerings, marking a notable shift in its leadership team.

Sharing the update on X, Narayanan described his stint as "three incredible years" and indicated that the timing felt right given the wave of recent and upcoming product launches. His exit adds to a series of high-profile departures as the company continues to evolve.

Narayanan currently serves as CTO of B2B Applications at OpenAI. Over the years, he has led key engineering efforts behind some of the company's most widely adopted products, including ChatGPT and its developer API ecosystem. As of now, there has been no official word on who will take over his responsibilities.

Career journey and background

A seasoned name in Silicon Valley, Narayanan brings decades of experience in building large-scale consumer platforms and AI-driven systems. He began his professional journey at IBM's Almaden Research Center before moving on to Meta Platforms, where he spent over 10 years.

At Meta, he played a key role in leading engineering for Facebook Photos, one of the platform's most widely used features. His work also extended into artificial intelligence, contributing to systems involving language processing, computer vision, and recommendation engines.

An alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology Madras (Class of 1995), Narayanan later pursued a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

What's next

Looking ahead, Narayanan shared that he plans to take time off to be with his family in India, particularly his ageing parents, before deciding on his next move.

His exit follows other recent departures at OpenAI, including Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles, pointing to a broader reshuffle within the organisation.

Role in scaling OpenAI's products

During his time at OpenAI, Narayanan played a central role in building and expanding the company's Applied Engineering team - the division responsible for translating AI research into real-world products. Under his leadership, the team grew significantly from a small group of around 40 members into a large global unit supporting widely used platforms.

This phase also saw ChatGPT emerge as one of the fastest-growing AI applications across both consumer and enterprise segments, while OpenAI's API business gained traction among startups and large enterprises alike.

In his farewell note, Narayanan acknowledged the support of OpenAI's leadership, including CEO Sam Altman and Applications CEO Fidji Simo, calling his time at the company "the opportunity of a lifetime."