Full-Stack Software Engineer, Applied Foundations

OpenAI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is looking for Full-Stack Software Engineers in San Francisco to design and implement services for their core products. The position involves building both frontend and backend systems, participating in architectural planning, and ensuring security against adversarial attacks. Ideal candidates thrive in startup environments, have experience in full-stack development, and possess a humble and collaborative attitude. OpenAI values diverse perspectives and is dedicated to using AI for the benefit of all humanity.

Qualifications

• Experience building and shipping full-stack apps or systems end-to-end.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, startup-like environment.
• Willingness to own problems end-to-end and seek knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and improve frontend and backend systems.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to design secure solutions.
• Participate in architectural planning and technical design reviews.

Skills

Full-stack app development

Team collaboration

Problem-solving

System architecture

User experience protection

Job description

About the Team

OpenAI’s Applications Engineering organization builds and operates the products (such as ChatGPT & Codex) that bring our cutting‑edge research to millions of users and developers worldwide.

The Applied Foundations team owns the core product and platform layers that make those experiences possible — from identity & access, to safety to payments & commerce across all of our apps. Our teams span product engineering, infrastructure, and safety, working together to deliver technology that is reliable, secure, and trusted at global scale.

About the Role

We’re hiring Full‑Stack Software Engineers to design and implement safe services, systems and infrastructure that power our core products.

In this role, you will:

• Architect, build, and improve frontend and backend systems.
• Work across the full stack to build products and systems from initial exploration through launch readiness.
• Participate in long‑term architectural planning and technical design reviews.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to design solutions that protect against and mitigate adversarial attacks without compromising user experience.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have built and shipped full‑stack apps or systems end‑to‑end — in fast‑moving, startup‑like environments.
• Have a humble attitude, an eagerness to help your colleagues, and a desire to do whatever it takes to make the team succeed.
• Enjoy building resilient products and services that handle large scale and complexity.
• Are self‑directed and enjoy figuring out the best way to solve a particular problem.
• Own problems end‑to‑end, and are willing to pick up whatever knowledge you're missing to get the job done.

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 legally protected characteristics. OpenAI’s affirmative action and equal employment opportunity policy statement is available upon request.