About the Position

Software Engineer

San Francisco

About the Team

We build software that helps understand and reduce risks from increasingly capable AI systems. Our work spans cybersecurity, frontier-risk evaluations, and red teaming, with a focus on turning research and testing into practical tools and reliable systems.

We collaborate across research, engineering, and security to investigate model capabilities, identify potential failures, and develop ways to evaluate and improve safeguards.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Software Engineer to build the tools and infrastructure that support this work. You’ll partner closely with researchers and other engineers to translate evolving questions into useful software-from early prototypes to systems that teams can depend on.

Projects may include backend services, evaluation infrastructure, data pipelines, and internal applications for running tests, investigating model behavior, and reviewing results. This is a general software engineering role with room to contribute across the stack and develop deeper expertise in AI safety and security.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and maintain software that supports cybersecurity research, frontier-risk evaluations, and red teaming.
Develop tools and workflows that make it easier to run evaluations, inspect results, and investigate failures.
Build services, APIs, data pipelines, and interfaces that help researchers work efficiently.
Turn experimental workflows into reusable, well-tested, and documented systems.
Own projects from understanding the problem and designing a solution through implementation, deployment, and ongoing operation.
Improve reliability, performance, observability, security, and usability as needs evolve.
Collaborate with researchers, security specialists, and engineers to identify useful problems and make practical technical decisions.

Requirements

Strong software engineering fundamentals and experience building, shipping, and maintaining production software.
Proficiency in a general-purpose programming language and comfort learning unfamiliar tools and systems.
Experience in one or more areas such as backend development, full-stack applications, infrastructure, or data systems.
Ability to take an open-ended problem, clarify what matters, and deliver a useful solution.
Balance rapid iteration with maintainable design and operational reliability.
Clear communication skills and enjoyment in working with people across technical disciplines.
Interest in understanding advanced AI systems and helping address their risks.

Nice to Have

Experience with security, developer tools, research infrastructure, evaluation platforms, distributed systems, or AI applications.
Prior AI research or cybersecurity experience is helpful but not required.

We Offer

Competitive salary
Opportunity to work in a cutting-edge field of AI safety and security
Collaborative and interdisciplinary work environment
Professional development opportunities

About the Company

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates.

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We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Software Engineer

Job description