Security Researcher, Agentic AI Threats

Details

About the team

Preparedness is a critical Safety Research team at OpenAI, which is focused on mitigating AI threats to global security that could scale to an extreme level of severity.

Our work involves:

• Measurement. Monitoring and predicting the evolving capabilities of frontier AI systems.
• Mitigation. Keeping misuse safeguards, alignment tools, and security measures on track to adequately address extreme threats that might arise in the future.
• Coordination. Setting mitigation targets by maintaining OpenAI’s preparedness framework, and partnering with other staff to achieve these targets.

This is urgent, fast-paced work that has far-reaching implications for the company and for society.

About the role

As AI agents become more capable at software engineering, and automate more of our internal work, they could become a dangerous cyber threat. People in this role will help OpenAI prepare for security threats from advanced AI agent insiders.

In this role, you will:

• Identify paths by which capable future internal AI agents could compromise OpenAI.
• Design security controls—focusing on measures with long lead times that benefit from advanced preparation.
• Stress-test defenses with AI agent evaluations and penetration tests.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Are deeply technical across security and modern infrastructure, and are comfortable digging into the details of operating systems, cloud, containers, CI/CD, or distributed systems.
• Have strong software engineering skills and enjoy building prototypes yourself.
• Are interested in engaging with stakeholders and can do so effectively.
• Bonus: have experience securing cloud infrastructure, and are deeply familiar with core components of the AI stack.

Compensation

Compensation Range: $293K - $405K USD (Offers Equity)

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
• Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
• Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus 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 multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)
• Mental health and wellness support
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
• Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth
• Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
• Relocation support for eligible employees
• Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.

More details about our benefits are available to candidates during the hiring process.

This role is at-will and OpenAI reserves the right to modify base pay and other compensation components at any time based on individual performance, team or company results, or market conditions.