Software Engineer, Applied Foundations - London

Details

The Applied Foundations team at OpenAI builds and operates scaled systems to detect, track, and respond to abuse and other harms stemming from our platforms. The Integrity pillar of Applied Foundations focuses on systems that identify and mitigate bad actors and misuse at scale. This role is part of a 0→1 team in London tasked with architecting next-generation systems to support and scale trust-and-safety work.

Responsibilities

• Design and build scaled foundational systems used in the detection, tracking, and enforcement of harm using OpenAI technologies.
• Work closely with and learn from technical and non-technical experts on harms observed on the platforms to inform designs and implementations.
• Leverage OpenAI’s advanced technologies to automate and augment detection and reasoning about complex harms, with minimal human intervention.
• Collaborate with policy, trust & safety operations, legal, investigations, and harm-specialized engineers and data scientists to combat abusive actors and misuse.
• Stay current with techniques and tools to remain ahead of determined and well-resourced adversaries.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of software engineering experience in backend and data systems.
• At least 2 years of experience in trust and safety analysis, investigation, and/or operations.
• Comfortable diving into an existing codebase, understanding its behavior, and proposing improvements.
• Strong learning mindset and ability to share knowledge clearly and concisely.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and rapidly changing conditions; able to add structure and order where needed.
• Experience with Machine Learning techniques is a plus but not required.

Benefits

• Base pay range listed by the employer; total compensation may include equity and performance-related bonuses.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax accounts (Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, commuter expenses).
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental leave and paid medical/caregiver leave.
• Flexible PTO and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees; 13+ paid company holidays and additional paid company 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 notes

• The role is based in London, UK (OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer).
• Background checks will be administered in accordance with applicable law.