Aaron L. Ruffin has joined OpenAI as an infrastructure lead.
Ruffin joins from construction advisor Avicado Construction Technology Services, which works with the generative AI company on its Stargate data center buildout.
“The past eight months supporting OpenAI through Avicado Construction Technology Services have been an incredible journey,” Ruffin said. “I’m grateful to the amazing Avicado team for their collaboration and support.
“Now, I’m excited to continue building the infrastructure that powers frontier AI directly with OpenAI. The work ahead is challenging, inspiring, and unlike anything I’ve done before, and [I’m] excited to continue this journey.”
Ruffin is the second public hire from Avicado, following Kaylen Bushell in June. Bushell joined the Infrastructure Delivery team.
Prior to Avicado, Ruffin was a senior land development program manager at Microsoft. He also spent nearly four years at the City of Redmond (where he focused on the city’s work on Microsoft’s campus), and four years across two stints at Jacobs.
Ruffin joins a growing infrastructure team at OpenAI, working alongside Cameron Clay, the head of development and site readiness. Clay joined in April, after working at AWS, Tesla, and Boeing.
