Software Engineer, Frontier Clusters Infrastructure

Details

The Frontier Systems team at OpenAI builds, launches, and supports the largest supercomputers in the world that OpenAI uses for its most cutting edge model training.

We take data center designs, turn them into real, working systems and build any software needed for running large-scale frontier model trainings. Our mission is to bring up, stabilize and keep these hyperscale supercomputers reliable and efficient during the training of the frontier models.

Responsibilities

• Spin up and scale large Kubernetes clusters, including automation for provisioning, bootstrapping, and cluster lifecycle management.
• Build software abstractions that unify multiple clusters and present a seamless interface to training workloads.
• Own node bring-up from bare metal through firmware upgrades, ensuring fast, repeatable deployment at massive scale.
• Improve operational metrics such as reducing cluster restart times (e.g., from hours to minutes) and accelerating firmware or OS upgrade cycles.
• Integrate networking and hardware health systems to deliver end-to-end reliability across servers, switches, and data center infrastructure.
• Develop monitoring and observability systems to detect issues early and keep clusters stable under extreme load.

Requirements

• Experience as an infrastructure, systems, or distributed systems engineer in large-scale or high-availability environments.
• Strong knowledge of Kubernetes internals, cluster scaling patterns, and containerized workloads.
• Proficiency in cloud infrastructure concepts (compute, networking, storage, security) and in automating cluster or data center operations.
• Deep experience operating or scaling Kubernetes clusters or similar container orchestration systems in high-growth or hyperscale environments.
• Strong programming or scripting skills (Python, Go, or similar) and familiarity with Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Comfortable with bare-metal Linux environments, GPU hardware, and large-scale networking.
• Ability to solve fast-moving, high-impact operational problems and build automation to eliminate manual work; balance careful engineering with the urgency of keeping mission-critical systems running.

Bonus:

• Background with GPU workloads, firmware management, or high-performance computing.

Benefits

• Competitive base pay (range listed separately) plus generous equity and performance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees.
• 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.
• Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees.
• 13+ paid company holidays and additional office closures for recharge, plus 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 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. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. 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.