In a message shared publicly on LinkedIn, Narayanan said he had informed the leadership team earlier this month of his decision. The San Francisco-based executive indicated he plans to spend time in India with his aging parents before making any decisions about his next professional step.
Narayanan joined OpenAI as Vice President of Engineering and later moved into the role of Chief Technology Officer for B2B applications. During that time, he oversaw engineering efforts tied to products that would come to define the company’s recent trajectory.
Reflecting on his tenure, he described the experience as unusually intense, noting that the past three years felt closer to a decade in pace and scope. He pointed to the development and release of widely adopted tools such as ChatGPT and the company’s API, which he said were built without an established roadmap.
In his message to colleagues, Narayanan wrote about the early days of his time at the company, recalling when the applied engineering team was still relatively small and operating out of a single office floor. He credited the team’s growth and output to what he described as a highly committed and driven group of engineers and collaborators.
He also acknowledged the role of OpenAI’s leadership, including CEO Sam Altman, co-founder Greg Brockman, and executive Fidji Simo, describing the opportunity as a defining period in his career.
Narayanan’s departure comes at a moment he described as a natural pause point, with recent and upcoming product launches shaping the company’s current phase. He did not indicate any immediate plans beyond his return to India, framing the decision as both professional and personal.
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For now, his exit closes a chapter that he characterized as both demanding and formative, tied closely to what he called a historic period for technology and society.
