Senior Backend Engineer - Enterprise Permissions & Governance

Candidate; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking an experienced backend software engineer to shape and build systems behind enterprise access, governance, and sharing. You will lead technical design, remain hands-on from implementation to production, and collaborate across OpenAI products in a San Francisco–based role.

You will design scalable services, own reliability and security, and mentor teams while translating enterprise needs into practical, maintainable solutions.

Qualifications

• 9+ years of backend engineering experience in production services.
• Experience shipping complex product or platform capabilities customers depend on.
• Experience leading architecture decisions while remaining hands-on.
• Strong proficiency in Python, Go, Rust, Java, or C++ with solid design skills.
• Experience designing distributed services, APIs, and data models with reliability and performance tradeoffs.
• Experience building authorization, permissions, or enterprise governance systems.
• Strong product judgment and communication; turning ambiguous needs into technical decisions.
• Proven track record of owning production systems and improving reliability and security.

Responsibilities

• Design and build backend services for permissions and governance across OpenAI products.
• Develop sharing capabilities with clear access rules for admins and users.
• Lead architecture and delivery for complex initiatives with cross-team coordination.
• Translate enterprise needs into reliable configuration and permission behavior.
• Own reliability, security, and performance through testing and observability.
• Mentor teams and contribute to production operations.

Skills

Backend engineering

Python

Go

Rust

Java

C++

APIs

Distributed systems

Security

Observability

Job description

OpenAI is seeking an experienced backend software engineer to shape and build systems behind enterprise access, governance, and sharing. You will lead technical design, remain hands-on from implementation to production, and collaborate across OpenAI products in a San Francisco–based role.

You will design scalable services, own reliability and security, and mentor teams while translating enterprise needs into practical, maintainable solutions.