Global WAN Network Engineer — fiber, carriers, automation

OpenAI, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI's Global Network Infrastructure team is expanding its WAN backbone to connect compute footprints across data centers, PoPs, and cloud providers. We design, deploy, and operate a reliable global network at scale.

You will own activation, troubleshooting across Layer 1–3, and collaborate with fiber carriers and internal teams to ensure dependable connectivity. We value engineers who automate and optimize operations as OpenAI grows.

Qualifications

• Hands-on WAN deployment, activation, and troubleshooting with carriers, fiber providers, or cloud providers.
• Strong networking fundamentals including optical networking, Ethernet, TCP/IP, BGP, and Layer 2/3 connectivity.
• Ability to debug network issues across multiple layers from physical fiber to routing and traffic forwarding.
• Experience with data center networking, carrier infrastructure, cloud interconnects, or large-scale WAN environments.
• Knowledge of fiber cabling, port mappings, optical distribution frames (ODFs), and network equipment connectivity.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and support WAN infrastructure across data centers, network PoPs, and cloud connectivity environments.
• Own the end-to-end activation and turn-up of network circuits, working directly with fiber carriers and cloud service providers to establish and validate connectivity.
• Troubleshoot complex network issues across physical, Layer 2, and Layer 3 infrastructure, including optical signal problems, FEC errors, routing issues, and connectivity failures.
• Diagnose and isolate network failures across carrier, cloud provider, and internal infrastructure boundaries, driving issues through resolution.
• Contribute to physical network infrastructure design, including port mappings, fiber and cable layouts, optical distribution frames (ODFs), and connectivity planning.
• Monitor network health, circuit utilization, and performance to proactively identify capacity constraints and reliability risks.
• Build automation and tooling to streamline network provisioning, deployment validation, troubleshooting, and operational workflows.
• Collaborate with network engineering, data center infrastructure, and external service providers to support the expansion of OpenAI's global backbone.
• Participate in an on-call rotation to maintain the reliability and availability of critical network infrastructure.

Skills

WAN design

Circuit provisioning

Troubleshooting

Automation scripting

BGP

Data center networking

Fiber connectivity

Tools

Networking hardware

Job description

OpenAI's Global Network Infrastructure team is expanding its WAN backbone to connect compute footprints across data centers, PoPs, and cloud providers. We design, deploy, and operate a reliable global network at scale.

You will own activation, troubleshooting across Layer 1–3, and collaborate with fiber carriers and internal teams to ensure dependable connectivity. We value engineers who automate and optimize operations as OpenAI grows.