Software Engineer, Scaled Abuse

Details

The Applied team safely brings OpenAI's technology to the world, including ChatGPT, Plugins, DALL·E, and APIs for GPT-5, embeddings, and fine-tuning. The team also operates inference infrastructure at scale while ensuring that its tools are used responsibly.

The Fraud Engineering team works within Applied Engineering to identify and respond to fraudsters on the platform. The team is seeking a software engineer with anti-fraud and abuse experience to help architect and build next-generation anti-fraud systems.

The Scaled Abuse team protects OpenAI's products and customers by detecting, preventing, and responding to fraudulent and abusive behavior at scale. It builds and operates backend and data systems that power real-time detection, investigation workflows, and enforcement while balancing strong protections with a positive user experience.

The work sits at the intersection of engineering and abuse expertise. The team partners with Trust & Safety, Security, and Product to understand emerging attack patterns, translate complex signals into clear system behavior, and continuously strengthen defenses.

Responsibilities

• Design and build systems for fraud detection and remediation while balancing fraud loss, implementation cost, and customer experience.
• Work closely with Finance, Security, Product, Research, and Trust & Safety Operations to combat fraudulent and abusive actors.
• Stay current with techniques and tools to remain several steps ahead of determined and well-resourced adversaries.
• Utilize GPT-5 and future models to combat fraud and abuse more effectively.
• Quickly understand unfamiliar codebases and propose pragmatic improvements that make the overall stack more resilient.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of software engineering experience in backend and data systems.
• At least 2 years of experience in fraud or abuse analysis, investigation, and/or operations.
• Ability to understand how a codebase works end-to-end and identify improvements that strengthen engineering systems.
• Strong desire to learn and develop missing skills, along with the ability to share information clearly and concisely.
• Comfort working with ambiguity and rapidly changing conditions.
• Experience with machine learning techniques is a plus but is not required.

Tech Stack

• Terraform
• Kubernetes
• Azure
• Python
• PostgreSQL
• Kafka

The company values experience with these technologies but primarily seeks engineers with strong technical skills and the ability to quickly learn new tools and frameworks.

Benefits

• Base salary range of $230,000–$385,000 per year, plus equity.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax Flexible Spending Accounts and commuter benefits.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental, medical, and caregiver leave.
• Paid time off, company holidays, and paid office closures.
• 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.

OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer committed to reasonable accommodations and fair-chance employment practices.