Software Engineer, Core Science

Details

About the Team

The Core Science team is a new vertical within Codex focused on making AI an exceptional collaborator for scientific discovery. The team is building AI-native tooling and infrastructure for scientists across paper writing, literature search, data analysis, simulations, and computational experimentation. The mission is to help researchers move faster — accelerate breakthroughs in math, physics, biology, chemistry, bioengineering, and adjacent scientific domains through powerful AI-assisted workflows.

About the Role

As a Software Engineer, Core Science, you will help design and build the platforms, products, and infrastructure powering AI-native scientific research workflows inside Codex. This role spans backend and full-stack engineering, with opportunities to work closely with researchers, applied scientists, and product teams to define new experiences for scientific exploration and experimentation.

You will own systems end-to-end: architecture, implementation, evaluation, launch, and production operations. You will build across backend services, data and orchestration pipelines, model-powered workflows, and user-facing experiences, balancing rapid experimentation with the rigor and reliability required for research tools.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. The team uses a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offers relocation assistance to new employees.

Responsibilities

• Shape AI-powered scientific research by building backend systems and full-stack product experiences across Prism and Codex.
• Develop AI-native workflows for paper writing, literature review, research synthesis, and scientific knowledge exploration, working with heterogeneous sources and complex technical content.
• Partner with researchers and domain experts across biology and adjacent scientific disciplines to translate research needs into trustworthy product capabilities.
• Build AI-powered tools for scientific data analysis and simulation, enabling researchers to explore datasets, design and run computational experiments, and interpret results.
• Establish product, platform, and engineering foundations for fast-moving 0→1 efforts across Core Science, balancing rapid experimentation with reliability and quality.

Requirements / You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have strong backend or full-stack engineering fundamentals and experience taking complex product ideas from prototype to reliable production systems, with attention to performance, usability, and maintainability.
• Are comfortable building in highly ambiguous 0→1 environments where customer needs, product direction, architecture, and model capabilities evolve quickly.
• Are excited about applying AI systems to consequential scientific problems and care about building tools that improve how researchers reason, analyze evidence, collaborate, and make discoveries.
• Have experience building scalable distributed systems, developer platforms, data-intensive applications, retrieval or knowledge systems, workflow tools, or model-powered product experiences.
• Care deeply about product quality, iteration speed, and user impact, and can use feedback from researchers to rapidly improve systems while maintaining scientific and technical trustworthiness.
• Are curious about scientific workflows and domains such as computational biology, chemistry, biomedical research, or research tooling, and are motivated to learn from domain experts.
• Communicate clearly across engineering, research, product, and domain-specialist audiences, and enjoy turning complex, underspecified problems into opinionated systems.

Compensation

Compensation Range: $293K - $385K USD

The base pay may vary depending on market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Total compensation may also include equity and performance-related bonuses.

Workplace & Relocation

This role is based in San Francisco, CA and follows a hybrid model (3 days in office per week). Relocation assistance is offered to eligible new employees.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
• Pre-tax accounts (Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, commuter benefits)
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
• Paid parental leave and medical/caregiver leave
• Paid time off and paid company holidays
• 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

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. The company emphasizes safety, diversity of perspectives, and legal compliance in hiring practices. Background checks will be administered in accordance with applicable law. OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.