Barret Zoph is on the move again.
The AI executive and former OpenAI researcher has landed at Google, just months after leaving OpenAI for the second time.
Zoph is joining Google as vice president of research, where he will focus on reinforcement learning and post-training work for the company’s Gemini AI models, a Google spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.
It marks another twist in an increasingly restless career across some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence.
From OpenAI to startup founder—and back again
Zoph spent about two years at OpenAI before leaving in October 2024 to co-found Thinking Machines, an AI startup launched with former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati.
Murati had left OpenAI the previous month.
The startup’s leadership changed dramatically just months later.
In January, Zoph and fellow Thinking Machines co-founder Luke Metz left the company and returned to OpenAI. Zoph’s departure from Thinking Machines was subsequently reported to have been a firing rather than a voluntary exit.
His second stint at OpenAI proved short-lived.
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Five months at OpenAI
Zoph returned to OpenAI in January and was given responsibility for leading its AI enterprise sales efforts.
By June, he was gone again.
His latest move now brings him back to a company he already knows: Google.
The new role also puts his technical background back at the centre of his work, with Google highlighting his experience in reinforcement learning and post-training, two areas that are increasingly important as AI companies focus on improving the capabilities and reliability of foundation models.
Why so much movement?
Zoph’s rapid sequence of moves is striking, but it reflects a broader pattern across the AI industry.
Top researchers and executives are being aggressively recruited, while companies are simultaneously reorganising teams, changing strategic priorities and competing for scarce technical talent.
OpenAI has experienced particularly visible turnover.
The company has lost several senior executives and key employees over the past year, including high-ranking leaders involved in operations and infrastructure, even as OpenAI expands its ambitions and prepares for what could become one of the technology industry’s biggest public-market stories.
That makes Zoph’s career path especially notable.
In less than two years, he has moved from OpenAI to founding a major AI startup, back to OpenAI, and now to Google.
For an industry where the competition for talent can be as intense as the competition between models, Zoph’s latest move offers another glimpse into just how fluid the AI workforce has become.