Residency 2026

Details

About the Program

The OpenAI Residency is a six-month program designed to identify, mentor, and develop exceptional individuals with the potential to make outsized contributions to frontier AI research. Residents join OpenAI as full-time employees, embedding within Research teams to work on cutting-edge problems under the mentorship of senior researchers and engineers. The program is open to a wide range of backgrounds — self-taught engineers, independent builders, and researchers in fields like mathematics, physics, or neuroscience.

About the Role

• Embed with one of OpenAI’s Research teams for six months, working on ambitious projects that push the boundaries of AI.
• Receive direct mentorship from experienced researchers, learn to design and execute experiments, and contribute to real research directions.
• Residents are expected to ramp quickly and contribute meaningfully during the program. Some Residents may be considered for full-time roles at the end of the program based on performance and business needs.
• Location: San Francisco, CA with a hybrid, in-person collaboration schedule. Relocation assistance is available.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Research team mentors on experimental and research projects.
• Design and execute experiments to investigate research questions in AI.
• Independently build or execute complex technical projects and prototypes.
• Ramp quickly and contribute meaningfully to ongoing research efforts; be open to consideration for full-time roles after the program.

Requirements

• Strong technical ability and steep growth potential; trajectory is valued over formal credentials.
• Must be extremely proficient in programming languages and software development.
• Must be very comfortable with advanced math concepts in linear algebra, statistics, probability, and calculus.
• Ability to independently build or execute complex technical projects.
• Comfortable working in unstructured environments and solving open-ended technical problems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Achievements or recognition in technical or creative fields (competition awards, impactful projects or publications, open-source contributions).
• Evidence of self-study in machine learning fundamentals.
• Clear signals of originality, experimentation, or rapid learning.
• Motivation to discover AI breakthroughs and consider their potential benefits to humanity.

Application and Interview Timeline

• Applications will be reviewed and interviews may start as early as January 2026.
• The interview process includes multiple technical assessments over several weeks.
• Start dates are flexible and based on team availability.

Benefits

• Competitive base pay (compensation tier listed: $18.3K per month) plus generous equity and performance-related bonuses for eligible employees.
• 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 and paid medical/caregiver leave; flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees.
• 13+ paid company holidays and additional company office closures; paid sick or safe time as required by law.
• 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 may be provided.

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 AI capabilities and seek to safely deploy them through our products. OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. Background checks will be administered in accordance with applicable law.