Senior Privacy Data Governance Engineer

OpenAI; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking an experienced Software Engineer to drive the architecture and execution of user data governance. Based in San Francisco with relocation assistance, you will shape direction, build shared platforms, and lead cross-functional programs to make data flows discoverable, policies enforceable, and ownership explicit.

You will collaborate across Product, Data, Infrastructure, Security, and Legal, translating ambiguous requirements into pragmatic roadmaps and implementing high-trust

Qualifications

• Extensive experience designing and operating large-scale data platforms and privacy infrastructure.
• Led architecture and multi-team execution for data-governance domains.
• Translate policy, security, and product requirements into clear system boundaries and roadmaps.
• Influence senior stakeholders and engineering teams without formal authority.
• Take end-to-end ownership of high-trust systems.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical direction and architecture for user data governance across mapping, lineage, retention, deletion, access, and usage controls.
• Design and build shared services, APIs, metadata systems, and policy-enforcement mechanisms.
• Establish inventories of user data, data owners, data flows, and policy applicability across product and infra systems.
• Partner with Product, Data, Infrastructure, Security, and Legal to drive adoption and define decision rights.
• Own governance systems in production with observability, migrations, incident response, and continuous improvement.

Skills

Data governance

Privacy infrastructure

Large-scale data platforms

Job description

OpenAI is seeking an experienced Software Engineer to drive the architecture and execution of user data governance. Based in San Francisco with relocation assistance, you will shape direction, build shared platforms, and lead cross-functional programs to make data flows discoverable, policies enforceable, and ownership explicit.

You will collaborate across Product, Data, Infrastructure, Security, and Legal, translating ambiguous requirements into pragmatic roadmaps and implementing high-trust