Senior Backend Engineer, Enterprise Access & Governance

Faangapply; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking an experienced backend software engineer to shape the systems behind enterprise access, governance, and collaboration across OpenAI products. This role is based in San Francisco and requires hands-on delivery from design to production operation.

You will lead architecture for complex initiatives, translate enterprise needs into reliable, secure services, and build reusable APIs that scale across teams and products.

Qualifications

• 9+ years of professional backend software engineering experience.
• Experience shipping complex product/platform capabilities that customers depend on.
• Experience providing technical leadership for substantial initiatives, coordinating delivery across teams while remaining hands-on.
• Strong proficiency in backend languages such as Python, Go, Rust, Java, or C++, with solid design and systems fundamentals.
• Experience designing distributed services, APIs, and data models with reliability, scalability, and performance tradeoffs.
• Experience building authorization, permissions, or enterprise governance systems.
• Strong product judgment and communication skills, turning ambiguous needs into practical decisions.
• Track record of owning production systems, diagnosing failures, and improving reliability and security.

Responsibilities

• Design and build backend services for permissions, authorization, and governance across OpenAI APIs.
• Develop sharing capabilities between people and agents with clear access rules.
• Build reusable services and APIs that support workspace administration and console experiences.
• Lead architecture and delivery for complex initiatives, aligning product and engineering partners.
• Translate enterprise needs into clear configuration, predictable permission behavior, and maintainable systems.
• Own the reliability, security, and performance of the services you ship through testing and production operation.

Skills

Backend engineering

Technical leadership

Distributed systems

Python

Go

Rust

Java

C++

Architectural decisions

Job description

OpenAI is seeking an experienced backend software engineer to shape the systems behind enterprise access, governance, and collaboration across OpenAI products. This role is based in San Francisco and requires hands-on delivery from design to production operation.

You will lead architecture for complex initiatives, translate enterprise needs into reliable, secure services, and build reusable APIs that scale across teams and products.