Principal Software Engineer, B2B Engineering

Details

About the Team

OpenAI’s B2B Engineering team brings our most capable technology to the world through our developer platform and enterprise products. We build the backend systems, APIs, and infrastructure that power how developers and organizations use OpenAI in production.

Our work spans distributed systems, data infrastructure, platform services, and enterprise-grade capabilities like security, compliance, authentication, and reliability. We partner closely with product, research, design, infrastructure, and forward-deployed teams to turn cutting-edge AI capabilities into scalable, dependable products.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Principal Software Engineer to design and scale the systems that power our developer and enterprise-facing products. You’ll lead the architecture of backend services and platform capabilities that bring new AI functionality into production safely, reliably, and at global scale.

This role spans a broad technical surface area, including distributed systems, APIs, databases, data pipelines, and secure enterprise infrastructure. You’ll help shape both the technical foundation and the product experience of our platform, with a high bar for performance, safety, reliability, and API design.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and scale the backend services, APIs, and infrastructure that power OpenAI’s developer and enterprise products
• Lead the architecture of distributed systems, databases, and data pipelines that support large-scale, high-reliability production workloads
• Own major platform capabilities end-to-end, from early technical strategy and design through implementation, launch, and long-term operation
• Shape the design of our APIs with care and intentionality, treating API interfaces as core product surfaces and driving a high-quality developer experience
• Build secure, reliable, and compliant systems that meet the needs of both enterprise and developer use cases
• Partner closely with product, research, design, infrastructure, and forward-deployed engineering teams to bring new capabilities into production
• Drive technical direction across complex problem spaces, making sound architectural tradeoffs that balance speed, quality, and long-term maintainability
• Improve engineering velocity by building internal tooling, platform abstractions, and systems that increase leverage across the broader organization
• Raise the bar for engineering quality, system design, operational excellence, and technical decision-making across teams
• Identify and solve ambiguous, high-impact technical problems that cut across multiple systems and stakeholders

Requirements

• Significant experience building, scaling, and evolving production backend systems in fast-moving environments
• Deep expertise in software engineering fundamentals, distributed systems, and API design
• Proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Python, Go, Rust, or TypeScript
• Track record of leading complex technical initiatives and driving architecture across teams or critical product areas
• Strong focus on reliability, safety, security, and performance in production environments
• Strong product instincts and a high bar for developer experience and interface design
• Comfortable working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and able to create clarity where little exists
• Experience owning problems end-to-end and learning whatever is needed to solve them
• Experience as a founder or early engineer at a startup, or building products and platforms from scratch, is a plus

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.

OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.

Benefits

• Base pay within the listed range plus generous equity and performance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
• Pre-tax accounts (Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA) and commuter benefits
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
• Paid parental leave and paid medical/caregiver leave
• Paid time off (flexible PTO for exempt employees; up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees)
• 13+ paid company holidays and additional company office closures
• Mental health and wellness support; employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
• Annual learning and development stipend
• Daily meals in offices and meal delivery credits as eligible
• Relocation support for eligible employees
• Additional taxable fringe benefits (charitable donation matching, wellness stipends)