About the Talk:

Curious about what it takes to join the OpenAI team? Join Joaquin Quiñonero Candela, our new Head of Recruiting (and former Head of Preparedness), for a conversation about his unconventional career journey, how he's reimagining recruiting to meet the pace of innovation at OpenAI, and what we look for in people who want to be part of our mission.

About the Speaker:

Joaquin Quiñonero Candela is the Head of Recruiting at OpenAI. Previously, he served as Head of Preparedness, where he focused on mitigating catastrophic AI risks. Between these roles, he spent three months coding daily during an internship on AI for healthcare. Joaquin also serves on the Technical Advisory Board of Inditex.

Before joining OpenAI, Joaquin was a Technical Fellow at LinkedIn, leading work on AI and its responsible use. He was also a member of the Spanish Government’s Advisory Board on Artificial Intelligence, a non-resident Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center, and served on the Board of Directors of the Partnership on AI.

Earlier in his career, he led the technical strategy for Responsible AI at Facebook, where he also founded and scaled the company-wide Applied Machine Learning (AML) team. Prior to that, he held research positions at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, guest lectured at the University of Cambridge, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany. He earned his PhD from the Technical University of Denmark.

Outside of work, Joaquin is a passionate trail runner and triathlete, a devoted paella cook, and an amateur guitar player and folk singer.