Silicon Design Lead

Hardware - San Francisco

About the Team

OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops AI-native silicon and system-level solutions for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. Building on efforts like Jalapeño.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Silicon Design Lead to drive architectureance, and security requirements into efficient silicon designs, owning technical decisions from architectural definition through implementation and integration.

Part of this role will focus on hardware security implementation in close partnership with OpenAI’s Security team. While the Security team owns the overarching security architecture and requirementsance, power, area, and design complexity. The other part of this role will focus on driving general silicon architecture/microarchitecture.

In this role, you will:

• Own architecture, microarchitecture, and implementation of silicon IP and subsystems, from requirements and design specifications through integration and validation.
• Define hardware interfacesance, power, and area requirements.
• Partner closely with OpenAI’s Security team to translate security architecture, requirements, and threat models into implementable hardware capabilities.
• Design and integrate hardware security mechanisms, including encryption, key management, access controls, isolation, and data protection across silicon subsystems.
• Evaluate architectural and implementation tradeoffs to ensure security capabilities meet functional and performance requirements.
• Collaborate with silicon architects, RTL, verification, firmware, and software teams to drive subsystem design, integration, and validation.
• Review and contribute to RTL implementations, ensuring designs align with architectural intent and system requirements.
• Evaluate existing and third-party IP, identify architectural or implementation gaps, and drive solutions across subsystem boundaries.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have strong experience in silicon IP or subsystem-level architecture, microarchitecture, and implementation.
• Have owned hardware IP or subsystem designs from architectural definition through implementation and integration.
• Have experience implementing hardware security features such as memory encryption, key management, access controls, isolation, or secure boot.
• Understand how to translate functional and security requirements into hardware architectures, interfaces, and microarchitectural specifications.
• Have working knowledge of RTL design and coding proficiency in Verilog or SystemVerilog, with the ability to read, review, and contribute to RTL.
• Can evaluate performance, power, area, and complexity tradeoffs across silicon designs.
• Work effectively across security, silicon architecture, RTL, verification, firmware, and software teams to drive designs from concept through execution.
• Ideally, have broader SoC-level architecture or integration experience, though deep IP or subsystem-level expertise is sufficient.

To comply with U.S. export control laws and regulations, candidates for this role may need to meet certain legal status requirements as provided in those laws and regulations.

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

$287K – $485K + 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.