Software Engineer, Privacy Infrastructure

Details

OpenAI’s Privacy Engineering team sits at the intersection of Security, Privacy, Legal, and Core Infrastructure. The team's mission is to build data infrastructure and systems to support privacy, legal, and security teams securely, quickly, and at scale. Guiding principles include defensibility by default, enabling researchers, preparing for future transformative technologies, and building a robust security culture.

About the Role

You will design and operate technical systems that support legal compliance workflows, including secure data processing and document review. You will partner daily with Legal, Security, IT, and partner engineering teams to turn legal processes into concrete technical workflows. This role is focused on large-scale data problems where results may be scrutinized. This position is located in San Francisco. Relocation assistance is available.

Responsibilities

• Design and operate data storage pipelines that can operate at scale.
• Build search & discovery services (e.g., Spark/Databricks, index layers, metadata catalogs) based on the needs of partner teams.
• Automate secure data transfers — encrypting, checksumming, and auditing exports to reviewers.
• Stand up locked-down compute environments that balance usability with security controls.
• Instrument monitoring and KPIs that maintain accountability of data holds and productions.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to codify SOPs, threat models, and chain-of-custody documentation that withstand scrutiny.

Requirements / Skills

• Hands-on experience building or operating large-scale data-lake or backup systems (Azure, AWS, GCP).
• Familiarity with Terraform or Pulumi, and CI/CD to turn ad-hoc requests into repeatable pipelines.
• Comfortable with or eager to build expertise in discovery workflows (legal holds, enterprise document collections, secure review).
• Ability to communicate technical concepts (storage governance to block-ID APIs) clearly to Legal, Engineering, and other teams.
• Experience shipping secure solutions that balance speed, cost, and evidentiary defensibility, and can articulate trade-offs.
• Strong communication and documentation skills; able to work across disciplines under tight deadlines.

Benefits & Compensation

• Base salary range: $325,000 - $405,000 per year. Offers include equity and may include performance-related bonuses.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter accounts.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental leave, paid medical/caregiver leave, and paid time off (flexible PTO for exempt employees).
• 13+ paid company holidays and periodic company 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.

Other Information

• OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.
• Background checks will be administered in accordance with applicable law.
• For more details on policies and privacy, reference OpenAI's published policy links included in the original posting.