Privacy Data Access Engineer — Lawful Access

OpenAI; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a full‑stack Software Engineer to build internal tools and data pipelines powering lawful data access workflows and Legal Operations. You will translate ambiguous requirements into durable systems, focusing on secure, auditable data handling and reliable production services.

This role emphasizes end‑to‑end ownership, collaboration with Legal and Security teams, and improving operator experience for sensitive workflows within the Privacy Engineering team.

Qualifications

• Strong backend engineering fundamentals and experience building production services or data‑intensive systems.
• Experience building or operating systems for lawful data access requests and understanding related lifecycle, privacy and security constraints.
• Ability to reason about correctness, authorization, security, and privacy when working with sensitive data.
• End‑to‑end ownership and comfort learning unfamiliar products and domains.
• Experience collaborating across Engineering, Legal, operations, Privacy, and Security stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate backend systems and workflow tooling for lawful data access requests from intake to audit.
• Create reliable data pipelines and interfaces across products and data stores for accurate record handling.
• Implement least-privilege access, approval gates, provenance, audit trails, data minimization, and safe failure modes.
• Partner with Legal and Legal Operations to translate requirements into clear technical designs and operator experiences.
• Identify automation opportunities that reduce repetitive work while preserving human review and accountability.
• Own production systems through testing, observability, incident response, and documentation for reliability.

Skills

Backend engineering

Production services

Data-intensive systems

Security and privacy

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

Python

Cloud platforms

Job description

OpenAI is seeking a full‑stack Software Engineer to build internal tools and data pipelines powering lawful data access workflows and Legal Operations. You will translate ambiguous requirements into durable systems, focusing on secure, auditable data handling and reliable production services.

This role emphasizes end‑to‑end ownership, collaboration with Legal and Security teams, and improving operator experience for sensitive workflows within the Privacy Engineering team.