Software Engineer, Quality & Developer Tools | Consumer Devices

OpenAI; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 293,000 - 325,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Software Engineer, Quality and Developer Tools to build testing systems that validate device software. This role involves designing test frameworks, CI/CD integrations, and collaborating across teams.

Applicants should have deep experience in software quality and automation, be proficient in Python or C++, and thrive in a hybrid work environment. Compensation ranges from $293K to $325K, with equity offered.

Qualifications

• Deep experience in software quality, test automation, or developer tooling.
• Experience building CI/CD pipelines and isolated test environments.
• Fluency with test reliability techniques.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain a unified test framework for device software.
• Integrate test suites with Buildkite and publish traceable artifacts.
• Develop tools for API and firmware validation.

Skills

Software quality

Test automation

Developer tooling

Hardware-software integration

Proficient in Python, C, C++, or Rust

Strong debugging skills

Tools

GitHub

Buildkite

Slack

Job description

Software Engineer, Quality & Developer Tools | Consumer Devices

Consumer Products - San Francisco

About the Team

The Systems Integration team is responsible for building the infrastructure, tooling, and validation systems that ensure our device software is reliable, testable, and ready to ship. We design and maintain automated test frameworks, hardware‑in‑the‑loop labs, and release pipelines that keep quality signals trustworthy and enable rapid, safe product launches. Our work spans developer tools, automation, systems integration, and cross‑team collaboration to ensure every release meets the highest standards.

About the Role

As a Software Engineer, Quality and Developer Tools, you will build and own the systems that validate our device software—from test frameworks and regression infrastructure to hardware‑in‑the‑loop labs and release gates. You’ll design the tooling and automation that keep quality signals trustworthy, integrate them into CI/CD, and make it easy for engineers and QA vendor technicians to execute reliable, repeatable workflows.

We’re looking for engineers with deep experience in software quality, automation, developer tooling, and hardware‑software integration who thrive on building scalable, reliable systems for validation and release readiness.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of four days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Test infrastructure & frameworks: Design, implement, and maintain a unified test framework for device software across unit, integration, system, and end‑to‑end testing, with reproducible runs and integrations with GitHub, Linear, and Slack.
• CI/CD integration & releases: Integrate test suites with Buildkite, enforce promotion criteria for staging and production, auto‑file regressions, and publish traceable artifacts and release notes.
• Hardware‑in‑the‑loop lab design & orchestration: Plan and bring up racks, power and networking systems, and orchestration for device testing; support automated flashing, provisioning, and telemetry capture.
• Automation and developer tooling: Develop tools for API and firmware validation, result triage, log capture, replayable bug reports, and workflows that improve engineering velocity and debugging efficiency.
• Quality signals, metrics, and flake control: Build dashboards and alerts for pass rates, stability, and release readiness; detect and quarantine flaky tests; drive root‑cause analysis with owners; and track delivery metrics that protect release health.
• Vendor enablement: Create clear procedures and tooling that allow QA vendor technicians to execute repeatable processes, review their reports, and maintain a queue of rig maintenance and repairs.
• Cross‑team collaboration: Partner with embedded and systems software teams on testability, and with release infrastructure engineers on pipelines, signing, staged rollouts, and rollback/forward strategies.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have deep experience building software quality, test automation, or developer tooling systems for hardware products shipped at scale.
• Are proficient in Python, C, C++, or Rust, and have strong Linux fundamentals, including processes, networking, storage, and udev/systemd.
• Have experience building CI/CD pipelines, artifact management systems, and reproducible or isolated test environments.
• Have demonstrated success designing and operating hardware‑in‑the-loop labs and device orchestration systems at scale.
• Are fluent with test reliability techniques such as failure triage, flake detection and quarantine, and signal‑quality guardrails.
• Have strong debugging skills across software, firmware, devices, and release infrastructure.
• Work well across teams and enjoy improving the systems that make engineering and release processes more scalable and reliable.

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.

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.

Compensation

$293K – $325K + Offers Equity