Principal Software Engineer, Productivity

Details

The Connector Ecosystem team builds the platform and product experiences that let people extend ChatGPT and Codex through plugins, skills, connectors, interactive apps, and open standards such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The team focuses on plugin discovery, installation, invocation, creation, publishing, permissions, approvals, administrative controls, and reliable execution across products.

The role will set technical direction, build systems behind plugins, and improve how models use them. The work may include generalist infrastructure, identity-related integrations, plugin quality at the intersection of backend engineering and applied AI, and product experiences that drive plugin usage. The role involves leading complex cross-team initiatives from diagnosis and design through implementation and release, while remaining hands-on and partnering with Product, Design, Research, and engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction and lead complex initiatives across the plugin ecosystem.
• Align architecture and execution across teams.
• Drive product and design decisions with cross-functional partners.
• Design and ship APIs, SDKs, and services used by developers to extend ChatGPT and Codex.
• Build intuitive experiences for discovering, installing, and using plugins.
• Improve how plugins are created, tested, published, updated, and shared.
• Improve when and how models use plugins, including plugin selection and task completion.
• Work with Research to diagnose model-tool interaction failures and measure improvements as models evolve.
• Improve plugin reliability and interaction quality across ChatGPT and Codex, including interactive apps.
• Build consistent permissions, approvals, and administrative controls.
• Work with developers and partners to turn recurring problems into platform, tooling, and documentation improvements.
• Collaborate across Engineering, Product, Research, Security, and Trust & Safety.
• Mentor engineers, conduct thoughtful code reviews, and provide technical guidance.

Requirements

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• A track record of building and shipping products or platforms relied upon by people and developers.
• Experience leading complex technical initiatives across teams.
• Experience driving product and design decisions with product managers and designers.
• Strong opinions about APIs and abstractions, with the ability to explain technical tradeoffs.
• Experience with identity, permissions, or integration-heavy systems is especially valuable.
• Ability to understand user and developer needs and turn recurring problems into product and platform improvements.
• Ability to work across product questions and technical details and take ambiguous problems through production.
• Comfort working across web interfaces and backend systems.
• Experience building applied AI systems, diagnosing model-tool interactions, and measuring reliability and quality is especially valuable.
• Experience building APIs, SDKs, open-source projects, developer platforms, or internal tools with real users.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax accounts for health, dependent care, and commuter expenses.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental, medical, and caregiver leave.
• Paid time off, company holidays, office closures, and paid sick or safe time.
• Mental health and wellness support.
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage.
• Annual learning and development stipend.
• Daily office meals and eligible meal delivery credits.
• Relocation support for eligible employees.
• Additional benefits may include charitable donation matching and wellness stipends.

The role is based in San Francisco and follows a hybrid work model requiring three days in the office per week. OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.