Performance & Systems Engineer, Codex

OpenAI; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 295,000 - 445,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Performance & Systems Engineer for the Codex team in San Francisco, CA. This role focuses on enhancing system performance across various layers of technology to deliver significant improvements for users. You will tackle inefficiencies, build optimization tools, and collaborate with cross-functional teams. A hybrid model with relocation assistance is offered, along with a competitive compensation package ranging from $295K to $445K plus equity options.

Qualifications

• Experience operating across ML systems and cloud infrastructure.
• Ability to dive into ambiguous problems and deliver clear solutions.

Responsibilities

• Identify and address inefficiencies across the Codex system stack.
• Build tooling to measure and optimize system performance.
• Collaborate with teams to implement high-ROI performance changes.

Skills

Experience with ML systems

Cloud infrastructure knowledge

System performance optimization

Tooling and profiling

Job description

Performance & Systems Engineer, Codex

Research - San Francisco

About the Team

The Codex team is responsible for building state‑of‑the‑art AI systems that can write code, reason about software, and act as intelligent agents for developers and non‑developers alike. Our mission is to push the frontier of code generation and agentic reasoning, and deploy these capabilities in real‑world products such as ChatGPT and the API, as well as in next‑generation tools specifically designed for agentic coding. We operate across research, engineering, product, and infrastructure—owning the full lifecycle of experimentation, deployment, and iteration on novel coding capabilities.

About the Role

As a Performance & Systems Engineer on the Codex team, you will be responsible for whole‑system optimization across a complex, evolving stack. Codex spans LLM inference, cloud orchestration, agentic work management, and multiple product surfaces. Your job will be to identify and land high‑leverage changes—across infrastructure, modeling, and product layers—that make Codex agents significantly faster and cheaper to serve.

We’re looking for generalists who thrive in ambiguity and love chasing performance bottlenecks to ground. This is a high‑ownership role where your work will directly improve the experience of millions of users.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Hunt down and address inefficiencies across the Codex system stack, from agent behavior to LLM inference to container orchestration, and beyond.
• Build tooling to measure, profile, and optimize system performance at scale.
• Collaborate with researchers and engineers to land high‑ROI changes that improve latency and cost.

Ideal for candidates who:

• Have experience operating across both ML systems and cloud infrastructure.
• Enjoy diving into messy, ambiguous problems and emerging with clear wins.
• Think holistically about performance, balancing speed, cost, and user experience.

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.

Compensation

$295K – $445K + Offers Equity