Johannes Heidecke, OpenAI‘s head of safety systems, informed staff this week that he is leaving the company. WIRED has confirmed the departure follows a reorganisation aimed at merging the safety and research divisions.
A memo from chief research officer Mark Chen, seen by WIRED, states that safety teams will now report to Mia Glaese. She holds the titles of VP of research and head of alignment and will assume an expanded role as VP of research and safety. Saachi Jain, who previously led safety teams at OpenAI, will take over as interim head of safety systems under Glaese.
“The demands on safety continue to increase – we are training models at a much faster cadence, and release cycles have come down greatly in turn,” Chen wrote. “As a result, we have bigger coordination challenges around safety today than ever before.”
Heidecke joined OpenAI in 2021 as an AI safety analyst. He assumed the head of safety systems role in 2024 after Lilian Weng departed to co-found Thinking Machines Lab with other researchers.
“We’re grateful for Johannes’ contributions to OpenAI,” Chen said in a statement. “It’s important that our safety work is integrated with frontier-model development, with an earlier and more direct role in shaping key model, product, and launch decisions. We’re excited for this next chapter under Mia Glaese’s leadership across research and safety.”
What it means
The shift changes how safety teams operate. Previously, safety often acted as a separate checkpoint. Now, the structure places safety under the direct command of a research leader. This aims to ensure safety considerations influence model development and launch decisions before they are finalised. It also means the interim head, Saachi Jain, reports directly to Glaese rather than managing the function independently.
Heidecke’s exit occurs as OpenAI pushes out more capable models. Earlier this week, the firm launched GPT-5.6, its most advanced tool for agentic coding tasks so far. The company noted that compared to previous versions, GPT-5.6 displayed concerning forms of misaligned behaviour.
Heidecke is the latest safety-focused leader to depart in recent days. Earlier this week, chief futurist Joshua Achiam also told colleagues he would leave after nine years researching safety.
Changes extend beyond safety. Earlier this week, CEO of AGI deployment Fidji Simo announced she would step down after an extended medical leave. The company confirmed Greg Brockman would continue leading product teams and would also take on go-to-market strategy.
