Software Engineer, OpenAI Presence

We Love AI Jobs; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 230,000 - 385,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI Presence in San Francisco is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to shape the Presence platform by building reliable backend systems for high-volume enterprise agent workflows. You will lead architecture decisions while staying hands-on, working across backend services and product experiences to deliver scalable, robust solutions.

The role requires 9+ years of backend engineering experience, deep systems design skills, and strong production judgement.

Qualifications

• 9+ years of professional engineering experience in backend, platform, or product roles.
• Hands-on technical leadership with architectural decision making.
• Experience designing services, data models, and scalable interfaces.
• Strong production engineering judgment for reliability, performance and testing.
• Ability to balance delivery speed with security and maintainability.
• Experience with AI agents or enterprise workflows is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on technical leadership, guiding architecture and implementation.
• Design and build backend systems for reliable, high-volume agent workflows.
• Develop platform capabilities to support agent development and learning.
• Identify reliability bottlenecks as usage grows and iterate.
• Collaborate across backend infrastructure and product experiences.

Skills

Backend engineering

Systems design

Distributed services

Data modeling

Production reliability

Observability

Testing

AI agent evaluation

Job description

# Software Engineer, OpenAI PresenceOpenAISan FranciscoFull-time$230,000 – $385,000 / yearUpload your resume once and Scout applies for youApply with ScoutShare this job:LinkedInXSave imageBuilds backend systems for OpenAI Presence, a platform that helps businesses deploy AI agents in workflows such as customer support, sales, and insurance claims. The engineer shapes the platform’s architecture and reliability while working across backend services and product experiences.* Permanent* On-site* 9+ years### Skills and expertiseBackend engineeringSystems designDistributed servicesData modelingProduction reliabilityObservabilityTestingAI agent evaluation### Key responsibilities* Guide architecture and implementation across the Presence platform while remaining hands-on.* Build reliable backend systems for high-volume enterprise agent workflows.* Improve platform capabilities for agent development, real-world learning, and production reliability.## How this job comparesCompared with 1,635 open senior engineering jobs on October 10, 2026.Pay: This job pays $230K to $385K a year. The 719 open senior engineering jobs that publish US pay start at $164K on average, so this job starts about 40% higher.Similar open jobs: We Love AI Jobs lists 1,635 open senior engineering jobs at 344 companies.Remote work: This job is on site. 271 of the 1,635 senior engineering jobs (17%) are remote.AI in this role: High. AI is the core of the work: building, training or deploying AI systems. The role builds the platform that supports AI agents in production, including their development, evaluation, deployment, and improvement from real interactions. Agent workflows are the central product focus.## Full descriptionAbout the TeamOpenAI Presence, part of Enterprise Engineering, builds a platform for reliable AI agents that carry out high-volume business workflows. We focus on specific use cases such as customer support, sales, and insurance claims, helping organizations put agents to work in production.The Presence platform supports the agent development lifecycle, including evaluation, deployment, and improvement through real interactions. It connects agents to company systems and supports voice and chat experiences, with policies, guardrails, and human handoffs to help businesses stay in control. Read the launch announcement.About the RoleWe’re looking for an engineer to help shape the foundations of Presence and build the systems that make AI agents dependable in everyday business operations. You’ll help set the platform’s technical direction while staying close to the code, taking architecture from early decisions through to systems that perform reliably at scale.You’ll bring deep backend expertise and the product judgment to connect what we build with how businesses use it. The work centers on the services that power Presence and extends across the stack—giving you scope to shape both the underlying systems and the experiences they enable.In this role, you will:• Provide hands-on technical leadership, guiding architectural decisions and implementation across the Presence platform.• Design and build backend systems for reliable, high-volume agent workflows in support, sales, and other enterprise use cases.• Develop platform capabilities that support agent development and learning from real-world use.• Identify and address reliability bottlenecks as agent workflows become more complex and usage grows.• Work across backend infrastructure and product experiences as needed, collaborating with other engineers to turn evolving requirements into working software.Your background might look something like:• 9+ years of professional engineering experience, excluding internships, in backend, platform, or product engineering roles.• A track record of hands-on technical leadership, including setting architecture, breaking complex problems into clear implementation plans, and guiding engineers through delivery.• Deep backend engineering and systems design skills, with proficiency in at least one backend programming language and experience designing services, data models, and interfaces that remain reliable as usage grows.• End-to-end ownership of complex systems or product capabilities, from ambiguous requirements and technical design through implementation, launch, and production iteration.• Strong production engineering judgment: you can diagnose difficult failures, reason about performance and scalability, and improve reliability through testing, observability, and operational discipline.• Strong product judgment that connects technical decisions to user needs, with the ability to balance delivery speed, reliability, security, and long-term maintainability.• The ability to move between backend infrastructure and product experiences, contribute across the stack when needed, and quickly learn unfamiliar systems, tools, and domains.• Clear technical communication and effective collaboration across disciplines, including explaining trade-offs, creating alignment, and driving complex work forward while remaining hands-on.• Experience with AI agents, enterprise workflows, integrations, or agent development and evaluation is a plus, but not required.About OpenAIOpenAI 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.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.