Software Engineer, IP Infrastructure

Research Program Management - San Francisco

About the Team

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The IP Infrastructure team builds and operates the systems that enable OpenAI to share research and engineering technology securely and reliably with strategic partners. Our work spans continuously running pipelines for model weights, configurations, code, and container images.

We work closely with research, security, developer infrastructure, and partner engineering teams to turn complex requirements into dependable software. We’re a small, collaborative team with direct ownership of systems that support important partnerships.

About the Role

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We’re looking for a software engineer to build and improve the backend services behind these workflows. You’ll work primarily in Python, take projects from design through production, and make our systems more reliable and easier to operate as partner integrations evolve.

The work combines hands-on engineering with careful judgment. You’ll translate requirements about what can be shared into clear, testable business logic, debug problems across system boundaries, and collaborate with the teams that build and use the underlying infrastructure.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week.

In this role, you will:

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• Build and maintain automated pipelines that transfer model weights, configurations, code, and container images between OpenAI and partner environments
• Implement the validation and business logic that determines how artifacts are prepared and shared
• Improve production reliability through testing, monitoring, useful diagnostics, and robust failure handling
• Integrate services with source control, object storage, and build and container tooling, working closely with the owners of shared infrastructure
• Partner with researchers, security teams, and external engineers to understand requirements and resolve integration problems
• Improve existing workflows and use AI tools where they can make the systems we build more effective

You might thrive in this role if you:

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• Have strong Python skills and experience building, testing, and debugging backend software
• Have taken a service, pipeline, or automation project from implementation into production and helped keep it reliable
• Enjoy investigating how systems fit together and tracing problems across services and dependencies
• Can turn ambiguous requirements into practical software while exercising sound judgment around sensitive information
• Communicate clearly with technical and nontechnical collaborators and enjoy working with partner engineering teams
• Learn unfamiliar systems quickly and take responsibility for following problems through to resolution
• Experience with cloud services, object storage, containers, or CI/CD is helpful. Our work involves tools such as Docker, Bazel, and Buildkite, but prior expertise in every tool or a particular cloud provider is not required.

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

$266K – $405K + 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.