AI Provider Operations & Support Engineer

OpenRouter; United States; Remote; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenRouter seeks an AI-focused candidate to own model launches and provider onboarding, bringing new models to market and guiding provider integrations. You’ll work with labs and partners across the AI ecosystem, building tools and playbooks that accelerate onboarding and deployments.

The role emphasizes hands-on work with inference APIs, TS/JS and Python, and a bias toward shipping high-impact features for developers integrating LLMs.

Qualifications

• Experience: 2-3 years at a startup, software engineering, product ops, or similar.
• Technical Skills: Comfortable building with inference APIs, including Chat Completions, Responses, and/or Messages API; can read API docs and troubleshoot with logs/cURL/Postman.
• Mindset: Ambitious owner, fast learner, bias to ship. Passionate about AI and developer experience.
• Education: CS/Engineering degree is a plus, not required with demonstrated technical aptitude.

Responsibilities

• Tooling for benchmarks, onboarding and internal operations (~60%)
• Build internal tools to help speed up the model onboarding process
• Build internal evals to quickly evaluate models and endpoints
• Document internal processes and prime them for automation
• Model Launches & Provider Partnerships (~40%)
• Run end-to-end launch playbooks for various model types (text, audio, image, audio, video, embeddings, and rerankers): scoping, test plans, latency/quality checks, pricing & quotas, docs, and announcement assets.
• Coordinate with model providers to integrate, QA, and hit ship dates.
• Maintain clear versioning and release notes; manage deprecations and migrations.

Skills

TypeScript/JavaScript

Python

Startup experience

Education

CS/Engineering degree (a plus)

Tools

cURL

Postman

API docs reading

Job description

About OpenRouter

OpenRouter is the open AI routing and infrastructure layer that enterprises use to access, manage, and optimize the best large language models across providers—without lock-in, capacity constraints, or unnecessary cost. We power some of the most advanced AI teams in the world by giving them the flexibility to move fast, scale confidently, and stay future-proof as models evolve.

As enterprise adoption of AI accelerates, OpenRouter sits at the center of how organizations operationalize LLMs across research, product, and production workloads.

About the Role

OpenRouter is an LLM marketplace that enables developers to use frontier models in one place. That means shipping frequent model launches and making integration dead simple.

We’re looking for an AI enthusiast to own model launches and provider onboarding. You’ll bring new models to market and drive the onboarding process for new providers. This is an ideal role if you love tinkering with AI models and want to build technical depth and work directly with all of the model labs and providers in the AI ecosystem.

Key Responsibilities

1. Tooling for benchmarks, onboarding and internal operations (~60%)

• Build internal tools to help speed up the model onboarding process

• Build internal evals to quickly evaluate models and endpoints

• Document internal processes and prime them for automation

1. Model Launches & Provider Partnerships (~40%)

• Run end-to-end launch playbooks for various model types (text, audio, image, audio, video, embeddings, and rerankers): scoping, test plans, latency/quality checks, pricing & quotas, docs, and announcement assets.

• Coordinate with model providers to integrate, QA, and hit ship dates.

• Maintain clear versioning and release notes; manage deprecations and migrations.

About You

• Experience: 2-3 years at a startup, software engineering, product ops, or similar.

• Technical Skills: Comfortable building with inference APIs, including Chat Completions, Responses, and/or Messages API; can read API docs and troubleshoot with logs/cURL/Postman. Experience with TypeScript/JavaScript and/or Python.

• Mindset: Ambitious owner, fast learner, bias to ship. Passionate about AI and developer experience.

• Education: CS/Engineering degree is a plus, not required with demonstrated technical aptitude.

What We Offer

• A front-row seat to real-world LLM adoption and access to cutting-edge models.

• Growth into specialized or senior roles as we scale.

• Collaborative, high-ownership environment.

• Competitive compensation, benefits, and equity.