Software Engineer, API Engineer

Details

About the Team

Our team brings OpenAI’s most capable technology to the world through our developer platform: the OpenAI API. As the leading AI development platform, our API is used by millions of developers and the majority of enterprises around the world, and powers the majority of AI applications that you may use on a daily basis. Most recently, we’ve released gpt-5, gpt-realtime, Responses API, Agents SDK, and many other products and features.

About the Role

We are looking for a software engineer to own the design of our APIs. Our API is our product, and as such we treat its design and development with care and intentionality. Every endpoint, every field name, and every enum value is a product interface that we want to design well. We are looking for engineers who not only love building APIs, but who will also sweat the details around API design and have a discerning taste for well designed API experience. You will play a major role in shaping the future roadmap of the OpenAI API – by both building and designing it.

Responsibilities

• Design and build products that we launch in the API – extending existing endpoints, adding new endpoints, or rethinking our entire API suite.
• Play a major role in our API Review process – working with all other teams to ensure our APIs meet our design standard.
• Collaborate closely with the rest of the API team, our Developer Experience team, and our GTM team to make our APIs the best in the world.

Requirements / Who You Might Be

• Appreciate taste in API design – you believe there are well designed APIs and poorly designed APIs.
• Can thrive and operate independently in a fast-paced environment with ambiguous requirements and goals.
• Love building for other developers, and thrive on feedback from opinionated users.
• Are an engineer at heart, but are willing to lean into product decisions.
• Think of APIs as ladders.

(Technical specifics such as languages or frameworks are not listed in the posting; primary emphasis is on API design, API development, API review, and building developer-facing experiences.)

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.

We are an equal opportunity employer and provide reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law.

Benefits

• Base pay within stated range; total compensation also includes equity and potential performance-related bonus(es).
• 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.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental leave, paid medical and caregiver leave, flexible PTO for exempt employees, and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees.
• 13+ paid company holidays and multiple company office closures throughout the year.
• 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 such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends.