Data Scientist - User Risk Measurement

Details

The Intelligence & Investigations (I2) team detects and disrupts abuse and strategic risk so people can use our products safely. Within I2, Strategic Intelligence & Analysis is building a first-of-its-kind user-risk measurement function: policy-grounded baselines, confidence intervals, and attribution that reveal how real users engage with frontier AI—and how that changes when we ship mitigations. This function turns heterogeneous safety signals into decision intelligence that appears in executive dashboards, launch/post-launch readouts, and weekly briefs.

About the role

As a Data Scientist on this new function, you will help define how the industry measures complex, adaptive human–AI behavior at scale. You will establish trustworthy baselines for user-level risk, create attribution that links changes to real-world mitigations and events, and deliver concise narratives and metrics that guide safety strategy and product decisions. The work spans end-to-end ownership—from framing the questions to delivering decision-ready outputs with clear quality standards and governance—while collaborating closely across Safety Systems, Data Science, Product, and Policy.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA (hybrid, 3 days/week). Relocation support is available.

Responsibilities

• Define the measurement framework for user-level risk across products and cohorts; scope the questions that matter and align on clear, policy-grounded definitions.
• Establish baselines and statistical confidence for core metrics: prevalence, intensity, trends, and cohort dynamics.
• Build decision-ready reporting surfaces: executive dashboards, weekly briefs, and launch readouts that translate insights into action.
• Clean and organize ambiguous data from disparate sources, with an eye toward building automated pipelines and systems.
• Create attribution and change-tracking: connect shifts in user behavior to mitigations, product changes, and external events.
• Partner across Safety Systems, Data Science, Integrity, Product, and Policy to ensure a coherent analytics entry point and consistent standards.
• Uphold quality, privacy, and governance: document methods, ensure auditability, and maintain durable measurement hygiene.
• Monitor signals for emerging risks and anomalies; recommend priorities that reduce harmful usage and improve user safety.
• Communicate clearly and concisely: deliver insights and trade-offs to executives and engineering teams in language that drives decisions.

Requirements

• 3–6+ years in data science, measurement/causal inference, or risk analytics in high-stakes domains.
• Strong in sampling, inference, uncertainty quantification, probability theory, and rare-event estimation; comfortable with time-varying metrics.
• Proficient in Python and SQL; experience with data warehouses and productionizing notebooks/pipelines.
• Ability to translate complex estimators into clear actions for executives and cross-functional partners; strong written and verbal communication.
• Commitment to quality, privacy, and governance; comfortable documenting methods and enabling auditability.

Nice to have

• Experience with Airflow DAGs or other ETL pipelines.
• Experience with Databricks.
• Experience with survival analysis, streaming/online detection, classifier evaluation/QA.
• Experience with privacy reviews/audit trails, or integrity/fraud/safety analytics.

Benefits & compensation

• Base salary range: $255,000–$325,000 (offers equity and additional compensation components such as performance-related bonus(es)).
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer contributions to HSAs; pre-tax HSA/FSA options; 401(k) with employer match.
• Paid parental leave and paid medical/caregiver leave; flexible PTO for exempt employees.
• 13+ paid company holidays and additional paid coordinated office closures; mental health and wellness support.
• Annual learning and development stipend; daily meals in offices and meal delivery credits as eligible; relocation support for eligible employees.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. The company emphasizes safety, diverse perspectives, and inclusive hiring. Background checks will be administered consistent with applicable law; reasonable accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities.