Product Designer, Physical Engineering

Product Design - San Francisco

About the Team

The Physical Engineering team sits within OpenAI’s Enterprise Verticals organization. We’re exploring how frontier AI can help people designance, and expanding what engineering teams can accomplish.

We’re building experiences within ChatGPT and integrations with tools such as CAD, eCAD, CAE, and simulation software to support engineers from early concepts through design, validation, and preparation for production.

We operate as a small founding team, working directly with customers and closely with research, product, data science, and forward-deployed engineering. We learn by building, putting products in users’ hands, and using their feedback to guide what comes next.

About the Role

We’re looking for a highly autonomous Product Designer to become the first dedicated designer on the Physical Engineering team. You’ll help define this product area from its earliest stages - shaping what we build, how it works, and how design operates within the team.

This is a hands-onation.

While your initial focus may be Physical Engineering, your work could extend across Enterprise Verticals as the design function grows. You’ll help establish reusable patterns and a high bar for craft across specialized AI products.

This role is based in our San Francisco HQ. We offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Define the product and design vision for AI-powered physical-engineering experiences.
• Lead design from customer discovery and early prototyping through detailed execution, launch, and iteration.
• Create intuitive interfaces that help engineers understand, inspect, and refine complex designs, simulations, and model outputs.
• Work directly with mechanical, electrical, and other physical engineers to understand their tools, constraints, and workflows.
• Partner closely with product, engineering, research, data science, and forward-deployed teams to translate emerging AI capabilities into practical products.
• Prototype new interaction models for visual, spatial, and technically complex work.
• Balance speed and exploration with a high bar for interaction design, visual craft, reliability, and user trust.
• Establish foundational design patterns and practices that can scale across Physical Engineering and other enterprise verticals.
• Operate independently, identify the highest-leverage opportunities, and bring clarity to an exceptionally early and ambiguous product space.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have independently led substantial zero-to-one products from early exploration through launch.
• Bring exceptional product judgment, interaction design, and visual craft to complex professional software.
• Are highly autonomous and comfortable defining both the problem and the path forward.
• Think and operate like a founder: learning quickly, making pragmatic decisions, and remaining accountable for outcomes.
• Enjoy working directly with highly technical users and translating specialized workflows into clear product experiences.
• Can move fluidly between long-term vision, systems thinking, rapid prototyping, and detailed execution.
• Build alignment through compelling prototypes, clear narratives, and close cross-functional collaboration.
• Are energized by unfamiliar domains and can develop enough technical depth to make thoughtful design decisions.
• Want to help establish the design culture and foundations of a new team.

Particularly relevant experience includes:

• Designing CAD, CAE, eCAD, simulation, chip-design, manufacturing, or other engineering software.
• Building interactive tools for visual, spatial, data-intensive, or technically complex workflows.
• Designing professional or enterprise products that integrate with established tools and systems.
• Working as a founding designer, early startup designer, or first designer within a new product area.
• Designing AI-powered products and evaluating whether their outputs are understandable, useful, and reliable.

About OpenAI

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 the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employeration, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable lawation technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.

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.

Compensation

$245K – $310K + Offers Equity

The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factorsance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees, and the following benefits.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
• Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
• Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)
• Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
• 13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)
• Mental health and wellness support
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
• Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth
• Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
• Relocation support for eligible employees
• Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.

More details about our benefits are available to candidates during the hiring process.

This role is at-will and OpenAI reserves the right to modify base pay and other compensation components at any time based on individual performance, team or company results, or market conditions.