Software Engineer, Privacy Engineering

Details

The Privacy Engineering team builds the systems and technical foundations that govern how user data is understood, retained, accessed, and used across OpenAI. The team partners with Product, Data, Infrastructure, Security, and Legal to translate policy and trust commitments into durable architecture and enforceable controls.

The work spans data inventory and mapping, classification and lineage, retention and deletion, access governance, purpose and usage controls, auditability, and lifecycle automation. The goal is to make policy-aligned data handling the default while providing clear, reliable primitives for building and operating products at scale.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical strategy and architecture for user data governance across data mapping, classification, lineage, retention, deletion, access, and permitted usage.
• Design and build shared services, APIs, metadata systems, and policy-enforcement mechanisms that make governance controls consistent, scalable, and auditable.
• Establish reliable inventories of user data, system ownership, data flows, and policy applicability across products, infrastructure, analytics, and research systems.
• Partner with Product, Data, Infrastructure, Security, and Legal leaders to define decision rights, translate requirements into controls, and drive adoption across teams.
• Own governance systems in production through measurable controls, observability, migrations, exception handling, incident response, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Substantial experience designing and operating large-scale data platforms, privacy infrastructure, or governance systems in complex production environments.
• Experience leading architecture and multi-team execution for one or more data-governance domains, such as metadata and lineage, retention and deletion, access governance, or data-use controls.
• Ability to translate ambiguous policy, legal, security, and product requirements into clear system boundaries, technical standards, phased roadmaps, and measurable outcomes.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and engineering teams without relying on formal authority, communicate tradeoffs clearly, and build durable cross-functional alignment.
• End-to-end ownership of high-trust systems, including correctness, scalability, auditability, operational resilience, and the developer and operator experience.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. Background checks are administered in accordance with applicable law.

Benefits

• Base salary range of $230,000–$325,000 per year, plus equity.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax accounts for health, dependent care, 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 applicable 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.