OpenAI’s head of safety is leaving the company

President of OpenAI WIRED has learned that safety systems major Johannes Heidke told employees this week that he was leaving the company. Heidecke’s departure comes after a reorganization that sought to consolidate OpenAI’s safety and research teams.

In a memo to employees seen by WIRED, chief research officer Mark Chen said OpenAI’s safety teams will now report to the company’s vice president of research and head of alignment Mia Glaese, who will take on an expanded role as vice president of research and safety. Sachi Jain, who previously led safety teams at OpenAI, will become interim head of safety systems at the company, reporting to Glaese.

“Safety-related requirements continue to increase, we are training models at a much faster cadence, and launch cycles have decreased significantly,” Chen said in the memo. “As a result, we face greater safety coordination challenges today than ever before.”

Heidecke joined OpenAI in 2021 as an AI Safety Analyst. He took over as head of safety systems at the company in 2024, after the previous president, Lilian Weng, left to co-found Thinking Machines Lab with other OpenAI researchers.

“We are grateful for Johannes’ contributions to OpenAI,” Chen said in a statement to WIRED. “It is important that our safety work is integrated with frontier model development, with an earlier and more direct role in shaping lead model, product and launch decisions. We are excited about this next chapter under Mia Gleiss’ leadership in research and safety.”

Heidecke’s departure comes as OpenAI attempts to launch increasingly capable AI models. Earlier this week, the company launched GPT-5.6, the most capable model yet for proxy coding tasks. However, compared to previous models, OpenAI says GPT-5.6 showed worrying forms of deviant behavior.

Heidecke is the latest safety-focused leader to leave OpenAI in recent days. Earlier this week, OpenAI’s chief futurist, Joshua Achiam, also told colleagues that he was leaving the company after nine years of safety research.

And it’s not just OpenAI’s safety teams that are changing. Earlier this week, Fidji Simo, CEO of AGI Deployment at OpenAI, told employees that she would be stepping down from her position after an extended medical leave. The company said Greg Brockman will continue to lead the OpenAI product teams, which he was tasked with in her absence, but will also handle the go-to-market strategy as well.