Lead Backend Engineer – AI Presence Platform

OpenAI, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 230,000 - 385,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) retirement plan with employer 


Paid parental leave

Flexible PTO

Relocation support

Meal/office benefits

Job summary

OpenAI, Inc. is seeking a Software Engineer for OpenAI Presence in San Francisco. You will shape the foundations of Presence, guiding architecture and building reliable backend systems for high-volume agent workflows in enterprise settings.

You will work across the stack to connect what we build with how businesses use it, ensuring performance, security, and maintainability as usage scales. Strong backend, leadership, and systems design skills are essential.

Qualifications

• 9+ years of professional engineering experience in backend/platform roles.
• Hands-on technical leadership including architecture decisions and guiding delivery.
• Deep backend engineering and systems design skills with scalable services.
• End-to-end ownership of complex systems from design through production iteration.

Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on technical leadership, guiding architectural decisions and implementation across the Presence platform.
• Design and build backend systems for reliable, high-volume agent workflows.
• Develop platform capabilities that support agent development and learning from real-world use.
• Identify and address reliability bottlenecks as usage grows.
• Collaborate across backend infrastructure and product experiences to turn evolving requirements into working software.

Skills

Backend engineering

Systems design

Technical leadership

Architecture

Job description

OpenAI, Inc. is seeking a Software Engineer for OpenAI Presence in San Francisco. You will shape the foundations of Presence, guiding architecture and building reliable backend systems for high-volume agent workflows in enterprise settings.

You will work across the stack to connect what we build with how businesses use it, ensuring performance, security, and maintainability as usage scales. Strong backend, leadership, and systems design skills are essential.