Designer, Research and Experiments

OpenAI; United States; On-site; USD 176,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI, Inc. is seeking a Designer to lead hands-on design for research and experimental creative work. You will define a project’s visual direction, build prototypes, and carry ideas through to finished work across research communications, demos, and experiences.

This role blends strong graphic design craft with an experimental approach, collaborating with researchers, creative leads, and production partners to translate technical concepts into engaging visuals.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant experience in design or related field.
• Strong portfolio showing senior-level design judgment and ability to explain complex ideas clearly.
• Experience shaping visual direction and delivering projects from exploration to final production with hands-on contribution.
• Strong graphic design fundamentals and ability to create flexible visual systems across media.

Responsibilities

• Partner with researchers and creative leads to define the design problem, identify the essential story, and establish a clear visual direction.
• Translate research concepts, methods, and findings into accurate visual narratives, checking interpretations with subject-matter experts.
• Develop concepts and prototypes for experiments, demos, and experiences, using iterative making to test and refine creative possibilities.
• Design across web, editorial, social, film, and experiential formats, maintaining a coherent visual idea as work moves between media.
• Build reusable graphic systems, templates, and design patterns that support research communications and future development.
• Guide design contributions from collaborators, give specific feedback, and maintain high typography, composition, and information design standards.
• Own design delivery for complex workstreams, align priorities with partners, and adapt scope as findings evolve.

Skills

Experience leadership

Visual design

Prototyping

Research storytelling

Cross-functional collaboration

AI/experimental making

Job description

About The Team

OpenAI didn’t begin as a traditional company. It began as an idea: that artificial intelligence could be developed in a way that benefits everyone. As a creative team, our role is to help make sure the work behind that idea is understood, as it leaves the lab and meets the world.

About The Role

We’re looking for a Designer to lead hands‑on design for research and experimental creative work. You’ll help define a project’s visual direction, build prototypes, and carry promising ideas through to finished work across research communications, demos, and experiences.

This role combines strong graphic design craft with an experimental approach to making. You’ll work closely with researchers, creative leads, and production partners, bringing structure to open‑ended briefs and helping collaborators turn technical concepts into work people can understand and engage with.

In This Role, You Will

• Partner with researchers and creative leads to define the design problem, identify the essential story, and establish a clear visual direction.
• Translate research concepts, methods, and findings into accurate visual narratives, checking interpretations and limitations with subject‑matter experts.
• Develop concepts and prototypes for experiments, demos, and experiences, using iterative making to test and refine creative possibilities.
• Design across web, editorial, social, film, and experiential formats, maintaining a coherent visual idea as work moves between media.
• Build reusable graphic systems, templates, and design patterns that support research communications and make future work easier to develop.
• Guide design contributions from collaborators, give specific feedback, and maintain a high standard of typography, composition, and information design.
• Own design delivery for complex workstreams, align priorities with partners, and adapt scope as research findings and production requirements evolve.

You Might Thrive In This Role If You Have

• 8+ years of relevant experience
• A portfolio demonstrating senior‑level design judgment, strong conceptual thinking, and polished work that makes complex ideas understandable.
• Experience shaping visual direction and delivering projects from early exploration through final production, with substantial hands‑on contribution.
• Strong graphic design fundamentals and experience creating flexible visual systems across digital or physical applications.
• An experimental practice that includes prototyping, testing approaches, and learning new tools or formats as the idea requires.
• The curiosity to understand unfamiliar research, ask precise questions, and preserve technical meaning rather than simplify it inaccurately.
• The ability to guide collaborators, explain design decisions, synthesize feedback, and maintain momentum when a brief is still developing.
• Experience with research storytelling, creative technology, interactive or experiential work, motion systems, or AI‑assisted making is especially relevant.

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 Affimative 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.

Compensation Range: $176K - $195K