Software Engineer, Infrastructure, Consumer Devices

OpenAI; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 325,000 - 440,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI company in California is seeking a Cloud Infrastructure Engineer to design and evolve platforms for their products. The role involves driving architecture, scalability, and reliability of critical infrastructure. The ideal candidate has 8+ years of experience in large-scale systems, with deep Kubernetes expertise. Responsibilities include building secure infrastructure, mentoring engineers, and influencing technical direction across teams. Compensation ranges from $325K to $440K, with equity offered.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience building and operating large-scale infrastructure systems.
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes and container orchestration at scale.
• Strong experience designing cloud abstractions and platform infrastructure.
• Proven track record of leading complex technical initiatives across teams.
• Experience operating highly reliable, secure, and scalable distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure platforms.
• Evolve cloud infrastructure abstractions for rapid product development.
• Architect systems to support significant growth and performance.
• Improve server orchestration, networking, and distributed systems reliability.
• Mentor engineers and raise the overall technical bar.

Skills

Kubernetes

Cloud Infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure)

Distributed Systems

Technical Leadership

Mentorship

Job description

Software Engineer, Infrastructure, Consumer Devices

Software – San Francisco

About the Role

We are seeking a Cloud Infrastructure Engineer to help design and evolve the platforms that power OpenAI’s products.

In this role, you will be a hands‑on technical leader, driving the architecture, scalability, and reliability of critical infrastructure systems. You will help define how we build and operate infrastructure at the next order of magnitude, while influencing technical direction across teams. This role is both deeply technical and highly strategic, requiring strong ownership, sound judgment, and the ability to partner effectively across engineering, product, and research organizations.

Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure platforms that power OpenAI products
• Evolve cloud infrastructure abstractions that enable rapid product development across teams
• Architect systems to support significant growth, performance, and operational complexity
• Improve server orchestration, networking, and distributed systems reliability
• Influence technical direction and infrastructure strategy across multiple teams
• Partner closely with product, research, and engineering teams to align infrastructure with evolving needs
• Own operational excellence, including participation in on‑call rotations and incident response
• Mentor engineers and raise the overall technical bar of the organization
• Contribute to a culture of high ownership, low ego, and thoughtful collaboration

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience building and operating large‑scale infrastructure systems
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes and container orchestration at scale
• Strong experience designing cloud abstractions and platform infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure, or similar)
• Proven track record of leading complex technical initiatives across teams
• Experience operating highly reliable, secure, and scalable distributed systems
• Strong systems thinking with the ability to balance velocity, reliability, and simplicity
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous, fast‑moving environments
• Experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction
• Passion for building infrastructure that enables impactful products

Why This Role Matters

This role is critical to enabling OpenAI to scale its products and infrastructure to the next level. You will help define how we build and operate the systems that power some of the most widely used AI products in the world.

Your work will directly impact the reliability, scalability, and velocity of OpenAI’s technology—helping bring advanced AI capabilities to millions of users safely and effectively.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general‑purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

Equal Opportunity

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.

Background Checks

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US‑based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non‑public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

Compliance Report

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non‑compliant, please submit a report through the provided form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

Accommodations

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. Requests can be made via the provided link.

Privacy

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy

Compensation

$325K – $440K + Offers Equity