Sensor Architect

About the Role

As a Sensor Architect, you will lead the definition, design, and development of advanced sensor solutions for next-generation consumer electronics tailored for AI applications. You will be responsible for architecting sensor systems that leverage diverse transduction principles, including capacitive, magnetic, optical, and MEMS-based technologies. Success in this role requires close collaboration with hardware, firmware, algorithms, and product teams to ensure sensor architectures translate into real-world performance. You will define figures of merit and verification methodologies, model and simulate performance, guide algorithm and sensor fusion development, and drive sensors from concept through bring-up and validation.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 4 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Architect sensor systems including motion, capacitive touch/proximity, magnetic encoders, optical sensors, and biometric sensors.

• Perform modeling, simulation, and trade-off analysis to optimize figures of merit (sensitivity, noise, bandwidth, stability, size, power).

• Define requirements and key performance indicators, ensuring alignment between sensor performance and product needs.

• Lead algorithm development, calibration, and sensor fusion to maximize performance and user experience.

• Prototype and validate sensors, leading bring-up, characterization, and root-cause analysis.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and external vendors to integrate sensors into high-volume consumer products.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• MS/PhD in Physics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field.

• 8+ years of experience in sensor architecture and system design for consumer electronics.

• Deep knowledge of sensor physics and figures of merit; expertise in at least three domains (MEMS inertial, capacitive, magnetic, optical, biometric).

• Experience influencing cross-functional technical direction.

• Hands-on experience with multiphysics modeling and simulation tools (e.g., COMSOL, ANSYS, MATLAB/Simulink, Python).

• Strong background in signal processing, calibration, and sensor fusion algorithms.

• Proven ability to define requirements, prototype, and deliver sensors into shipping products.

• Excellent communication and documentation skills; ability to work cross-functionally.

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.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act. 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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