Research Engineer, Human Data

Details

The Human Data team turns human feedback into reliable signals for training and evaluation. The team designs and runs end-to-end programs that capture the depth of human intent behind everyday and high-stakes uses of models, including bespoke data campaigns, scalable synthetic data generation, and product-embedded signals. The Research Engineer on Human Data will invent and ship systems that maximize the utility of human feedback at capability and deployment frontiers, creating new ways to capture and weight explicit feedback, decode implicit signals from products, and extract deeper insights from supervision.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. OpenAI uses a hybrid work model requiring at least 3 days in the office per week and offers relocation assistance to new employees.

Responsibilities

• Partner with researchers and the Human Data product manager to design, de-risk, and implement 0-to-1 innovations in all aspects of human feedback.
• Uncover new insights on AI trainers and users, and apply findings to OpenAI's research goals.
• Measure the efficacy of existing feedback methods and run experiments to increase that efficacy.
• Design methods that precisely capture human feedback across subjective, context-dependent goals and evolve with real-world usage.
• Ensure evaluations accurately track real-world utility and evolve with how people use models and applications.
• Run online and offline experiments that quantify downstream causal impact on model performance.

Requirements

• Experience with machine learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch) and comfort experimenting with large-scale models.
• Ability to move fluidly between high-level research questions and low-level implementation details; adapt methods to ambiguous, dynamic problems.
• Goal-oriented mindset and willingness to do high-value, sometimes tedious work to achieve impact.
• Strong engineering ability, first-principles curiosity, creative problem-solving, and an action-oriented, hands-on mindset.
• Experience designing, implementing, and measuring experiments (online and offline) that quantify impact on model performance.
• Motivated by OpenAI's mission and able to collaborate closely with researchers, product managers, and cross-functional partners.

Benefits

• Salary range listed: $310,000 - $380,000 (base pay varies by location, experience, and other factors). Total compensation also includes equity and potential performance-related bonuses.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents); paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks).
• Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees; 13+ paid company holidays and coordinated 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 (e.g., charitable donation matching, wellness stipends).

Additional notes

• Background checks will be administered in accordance with applicable law. OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.