Senior Backend Engineer — Scalable, Secure APIs

Alfie; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 293,000 - 325,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Hybrid work model (4 days in-office)

Job summary

OpenAI in San Francisco is seeking an experienced Backend Engineer to design and build scalable, secure backend services and APIs that power our products. You will work across hardware, cloud, and product teams to balance speed with long-term maintainability in a hybrid, four-days-in-office model.

The role requires 7+ years of backend-focused software development, strong Python and Go skills, and a track record of building systems at scale. Relocation assistance is available for new hires.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience focused on backend systems.
• Proficiency with Python and Go; familiarity with a range of server-side technologies.
• Strong understanding of system design, performance optimization, and security best practices.
• Ability to reason about full-stack tradeoffs from hardware through cloud infrastructure.
• Experience with distributed systems and cloud architectures is a plus.
• Experience with instrumentation, analytics, and performance tuning is welcome.
• Familiarity with hardware-cloud integrations or applied AI services is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and maintain high-performance, secure backend systems.
• Design APIs, data models, and infrastructure to support evolving product needs.
• Balance near-term development velocity with long-term maintainability and scalability.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver cohesive, end-to-end solutions.

Skills

Backend engineering

Python

Go

System design

Performance optimization

Security best practices

Distributed systems

Instrumentation

Analytics

Hardware-cloud integrations

Job description

OpenAI in San Francisco is seeking an experienced Backend Engineer to design and build scalable, secure backend services and APIs that power our products. You will work across hardware, cloud, and product teams to balance speed with long-term maintainability in a hybrid, four-days-in-office model.

The role requires 7+ years of backend-focused software development, strong Python and Go skills, and a track record of building systems at scale. Relocation assistance is available for new hires.