Software Engineer, Core Network Engineering

Details

The Core Network Engineering team owns the end-to-end networking stack that connects OpenAI’s compute infrastructure, spanning global WAN and edge connectivity, data-center networking, and high-performance host/xPU networking for large-scale training and inference workloads.

The team designs and operates systems that provide predictable, high-throughput, low-latency connectivity across AI infrastructure. The work covers low-level systems software, distributed infrastructure, protocol readiness, observability, performance engineering, automation, and large-scale network operations.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate networking systems supporting large-scale AI training and inference infrastructure.
• Improve performance, reliability, and scalability across host networking, data-center fabrics, and WAN systems.
• Develop automation for provisioning, configuration management, validation, upgrades, and networking infrastructure lifecycle management.
• Build tooling and observability systems for network health, performance analysis, debugging, and automated remediation.
• Optimize network performance using technologies such as RDMA, RoCE, InfiniBand, Ethernet, and high-performance GPU interconnects.
• Define and operationalize networking protocols, readiness criteria, and continuous validation systems.
• Partner with compute, storage, hardware, and infrastructure teams to ensure networking scales predictably with fleet growth.
• Contribute to architecture decisions involving topology design, capacity planning, failure domains, and network reliability.
• Diagnose complex distributed systems and networking issues across large heterogeneous compute environments.

Requirements

• Experience building or operating large-scale networking or distributed systems infrastructure.
• Comfort working close to the hardware/software boundary.
• Experience with Linux networking, kernel systems, NICs, RDMA, or performance-sensitive infrastructure software.
• Experience with high-performance networking technologies such as InfiniBand, RoCE, DPDK, or large-scale Ethernet fabrics.
• Experience with data-center networking, WAN systems, or host networking stacks.
• Ability to debug complex systems and performance bottlenecks across multiple layers of the stack.
• Ability to write production software in languages such as C++, Python, or Go.
• Strong systems fundamentals across networking, operating systems, distributed systems, or infrastructure engineering.
• Motivation to build infrastructure that accelerates frontier AI research and deployment.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. The company is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.

Benefits

• Base salary of $230,000–$342,000 per year, plus equity.
• 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, medical, and caregiver leave.
• Paid time off, company holidays, office closures, and 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 office meals and eligible meal delivery credits.
• Relocation support for eligible employees.
• Additional benefits may include charitable donation matching and wellness stipends.