Software Engineer, Backend

Details

OpenAI’s Applications Engineering organization builds and operates the products that bring our cutting-edge research to millions of users and developers worldwide. Teams span product engineering, infrastructure, and safety to deliver reliable, secure, and high-quality user experiences for products such as ChatGPT, the OpenAI API, and emerging AI-native applications.

This backend engineering role focuses on designing and scaling the systems that drive customer-facing products. You will architect and maintain services and infrastructure — from large-scale distributed systems and databases to APIs and data pipelines — and collaborate with product, research, and infrastructure teams to bring new AI capabilities to production while ensuring performance, safety, and compliance at global scale.

Responsibilities

• Design and build robust backend services and APIs that power products like ChatGPT and the OpenAI API.
• Develop scalable data pipelines and storage systems for high-volume, low-latency workloads.
• Improve system reliability, observability, and security across production environments.
• Collaborate with product and research teams to translate cutting-edge AI into dependable, user-ready features.
• Participate in an on-call rotation to maintain uptime and respond to critical incidents.

Requirements

• Up to 6 years of professional software engineering experience (the posting states "Have up to 6 years of professional software engineering experience").
• Proficiency in one or more backend languages (examples given: Python, Go, Rust, or similar).
• Strong understanding of distributed systems concepts and experience building infrastructure for high scale (billions of requests, petabytes of data).
• Experience building and operating APIs, data pipelines, and storage systems for low-latency/high-throughput workloads.
• Focus on reliability, safety, performance, observability, and security in production environments.
• Willingness to participate in on-call rotations.

Benefits

• Base pay range listed: $255,000 – $405,000 (base pay may vary based on location and experience). Total compensation may include equity and performance-related bonuses for eligible employees.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax accounts: Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit).
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental leave and paid medical/caregiver leave (detailed in posting).
• Paid time off (flexible PTO for exempt employees; up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees) and 13+ paid company holidays plus 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 (charitable donation matching, wellness stipends) as noted in the posting.

Other notes

• OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.
• Background checks will be administered in accordance with applicable law and local fair chance ordinances as described in the posting.