Applied Software Engineers

About the Role

We are looking for highly capable, generalist software engineers to join our Applied AI teams at OpenAI. In this role, you will work at the intersection of research, product, and infrastructure -building real-world AI systems that are used by millions of people and developers worldwide.

You will collaborate closely with researchers, product managers, designers, and other engineers to turn cutting-edge AI capabilities into reliable, scalable, and impactful products. This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy owning complex problems end-to-end, moving fluidly across the stack, and learning whatever is necessary to deliver high-quality outcomes.

If you are motivated by building systems that push the boundaries of what software can do -and want your work to meaningfully shape how AI is deployed responsibly at global scale - this role offers a uniquely challenging and rewarding opportunity.

What You’ll Do

As a Software Engineer, you may work across a wide range of projects, including but not limited to:

• Designing, building, and maintaining production systems that power AI-driven products and experiences

• Developing full-stack features, APIs, and internal tools to support applied research and customer-facing use cases

• Partnering closely with research teams to operationalize new model capabilities and rapidly iterate from prototype to production

• Building scalable, reliable services that support high-throughput, low-latency AI workloads

• Optimizing systems for performance, cost, reliability, and security at scale

• Owning projects end-to-end—from initial design through deployment, monitoring, and ongoing iteration

• Helping shape technical direction, engineering best practices, and product roadmaps as the platform evolves

We’re Looking For

We’re seeking engineers who bring strong fundamentals, adaptability, and a builder mindset. Ideal candidates typically have:

• 7+ years of professional experience as a software engineer (we are flexible for exceptional candidates)

• Strong engineering fundamentals, including system design, data structures, and debugging complex systems

• Experience building and maintaining production services or user-facing products at scale

• Proficiency in one or more general-purpose programming languages such as Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, Java, or C++

• Comfort working across the stack (backend, frontend, APIs, infrastructure) or willingness to learn new areas quickly

• Experience collaborating in fast-moving, highly cross-functional environments

• A strong sense of ownership and the ability to operate with ambiguity

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, 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. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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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.