OpenAI has hired Brian McCarthy, former president of global revenue at SpaceX and Cursor, as its vice president of worldwide sales. The move marks the first major hire by Dali Rajic, OpenAI's chief revenue officer, who started less than a month ago, and signals an aggressive push to scale enterprise adoption ahead of an expected IPO next year.
McCarthy joined SpaceX in August through its acquisition of Cursor. At both companies he led global revenue and worldwide field operations. He previously ran enterprise sales teams at Rubrik, ThoughtSpot, AppDynamics, and Qlik. This is a newly created position; McCarthy will not be replacing anyone.
A reunion at the top of the sales org
Rajic and McCarthy worked together at AppDynamics from 2017 to 2018, when Rajic was chief revenue officer and McCarthy was vice president of sales. Both were on the team as AppDynamics prepared to go public before Cisco acquired it a day before the planned listing. That history now extends into OpenAI's commercial buildout.
Rajic has also recruited two sales executives from Snowflake, according to a source familiar with the moves. Mark Fleming, Snowflake's SVP of enterprise sales, and Jaime Patel, Snowflake's VP of enterprise sales engineering for North America, are joining OpenAI. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Scaling enterprise growth globally
McCarthy will work with Rajic to build out the sales team and accelerate enterprise growth, including overseas. Corporate adoption of frontier AI models has become a key battleground for OpenAI and rival Anthropic. It is also a critical revenue stream as OpenAI moves closer to an IPO, expected sometime next year.
Despite widespread adoption of Anthropic's Claude Code, OpenAI has regained ground in recent months. As of this week, its latest Astra model surpassed Anthropic's Fable model in enterprise spend, according to data from Ramp.
"Brian combines a deep commitment to customers with a belief in what technology can do for people," Rajic said in an OpenAI LinkedIn post. "I'm excited to partner with him as we scale our business, help enterprises transform, and bring the benefits of AI to more people around the world."
In his own LinkedIn post, McCarthy said he was drawn to the role because he shares the vision held by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, co-founder and president Greg Brockman, and Rajic about enterprise adoption. "AI should help people solve hard problems, do more than they thought possible, and create new opportunities," McCarthy wrote. "With technology this powerful, we have a responsibility to get it right. For me, that means helping customers use it safely, keeping people in control, and making sure as many people as possible benefit."
Why this matters for sales professionals
OpenAI is building a sales leadership team with deep enterprise pedigree - McCarthy's resume spans Rubrik, ThoughtSpot, AppDynamics, and SpaceX - and placing it under a CRO who is stacking the org with former colleagues. For sales leaders watching AI vendors mature, the signal is clear: the company is shifting from product-led growth to a structured, global enterprise sales motion. That changes how procurement, security reviews, and vendor evaluations will unfold, and it raises the stakes for sales teams who sell against or alongside OpenAI. For VPs of sales looking to understand how AI fits into revenue strategy, this kind of organizational buildout mirrors the playbook covered in an AI Learning Path for VPs of Sales. Professionals who want to stay ahead of how AI companies are structuring their go-to-market teams can also explore AI for Sales Courses that map automation and strategy to real-world sales leadership.
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