Software Engineer, ML Systems & Training Architecture

OpenAI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 295,000 - 380,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI seeks a Senior Software Engineer for the Robotics team in San Francisco, CA. In this role, you will enhance the training framework, debug ML systems, and support engineers and researchers in improving code reliability.

Ideal candidates should excel in software engineering fundamentals and have experience with ML systems and infrastructure components. The position offers a collaborative environment and relocation assistance.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering fundamentals and excellent code review judgment.
• Experience with ML systems, training frameworks, and related technologies.
• Ability to read and debug unfamiliar codebases quickly.

Responsibilities

• Review, improve, and clean up code across training frameworks.
• Identify risky changes and enhance code quality.
• Debug issues across ML training systems and infrastructure.
• Help researchers unblock broken training jobs.

Skills

Software engineering fundamentals

Code review judgment

Experience with ML systems

Debugging codebases

Tools

GPUs

Distributed systems

Job description

About The Team

The OpenAI Robotics team is focused on unlocking general‑purpose robotics and pushing towards AGI‑level intelligence in dynamic, real‑world settings. Working across the entire model stack, we integrate cutting‑edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high‑level AI capabilities with the constraints of physical systems to improve peoples’ lives.

About The Role

As a Senior Software Engineer, ML Systems & Training Infrastructure, you will be a deeply hands‑on engineering force multiplier for the robotics team. You will help keep the training framework and surrounding infrastructure healthy, review and improve code quickly, debug failures across ML systems and infrastructure, and unblock researchers and engineers when the path from idea to working training job gets rough.

We’re looking for people who love writing, reading, reviewing, and fixing code; who can get productive quickly in unfamiliar systems; and who bring strong practical judgment without a lot of ego or process overhead.

This role will be based in San Francisco, CA, be expected in office 5 days per week, and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In This Role, You Will

• Review, improve, and clean up code across training frameworks and adjacent infrastructure.
• Identify risky or low‑quality changes before they land, and raise the code quality bar without slowing the team down.
• Debug issues across ML training systems, GPUs, clusters, networking, and related infrastructure.
• Help researchers and engineers unblock broken training jobs, flaky workflows, and brittle internal tooling.
• Improve the reliability, maintainability, and usability of the robotics team’s training framework.
• Move quickly on practical engineering problems that directly affect team velocity.

You Might Thrive In This Role If You

• Have strong software engineering fundamentals and excellent code review judgment.
• Have experience with ML systems, training frameworks, GPUs, distributed systems, infrastructure, or similarly complex technical environments.
• Read and debug unfamiliar codebases quickly, and enjoy getting to root cause.
• Ship high‑quality code with strong velocity and pragmatic judgment.
• Are low‑ego, responsive, and motivated by helping researchers and engineers move faster.
• Prefer being a highly effective hands‑on IC over driving broad process‑heavy initiatives.
• Have experience reviewing messy, fast‑moving, or AI‑generated codebases.

Compensation Range

$295K - $380K USD

Equal Employment Opportunity

OpenAI is 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 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 U.S.‑based candidates.

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