Staff / Senior Staff Backend Engineer, B2B Flywheel

Details

About the Team

B2B Flywheel is a small, high-leverage team working at the intersection of data science, research, and engineering within OpenAI’s B2B organization. The team is focused on building the systems that help OpenAI better understand how businesses and developers use our models, where they encounter friction, and how those signals can improve our products, models, and customer experiences over time.

We operate in highly constrained production environments, including privacy safeguards, low-latency services, and high-traffic API systems. Our work spans real-time backend engineering, data infrastructure, research engineering, and applied data science. The team is small and highly execution-oriented, with broad ownership across the systems that capture, process, and translate critical product and usage signals into better B2B experiences.

About the Role

We’re looking for backend software engineers to help build the data and systems infrastructure behind OpenAI’s B2B flywheel. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys working across backend systems, data pipelines, and applied ML/DS-adjacent problems — especially in ambiguous, fast-moving environments where the path is not always predefined.

You’ll help design and build real-time engineering systems that operate across high-scale API and B2B surfaces, while partnering closely with data science, research, product, and engineering teams. Strong candidates will bring deep backend engineering ability, comfort with data-heavy systems, and the versatility to work across multiple technical domains.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate backend systems that capture and process critical product, usage, and customer signals across B2B and API surfaces.
• Build reliable data pipelines and infrastructure that help translate raw signals into actionable insights, model evaluations, training datasets, and product improvements.
• Work on high-traffic, low-latency services in constrained environments, including systems with strict privacy and data-handling requirements.
• Collaborate closely with data science, research, product, and infrastructure partners to identify user pain points, measure system behavior, and improve product quality.
• Help develop the systems needed to support model and product feedback loops, including signal capture, evaluation datasets, classifiers, and analytical tooling.
• Operate with high ownership in a small team where priorities may shift quickly and the work spans multiple engineering domains.

Requirements / Background

• 7+ years of professional backend engineering experience, ideally in high-scale, product-driven, or infrastructure-heavy environments.
• Strong backend engineering fundamentals, including distributed systems, API services, data modeling, reliability, performance, and production operations.
• Experience building or maintaining data pipelines, event systems, logging/telemetry infrastructure, or large-scale data processing systems.
• Comfort working near data science, statistics, ML, or research engineering workflows; direct experience is strongly preferred, but not required.
• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous environments where problems are loosely defined and ownership boundaries are broad.
• High agency, strong execution velocity, and a willingness to wear multiple hats across backend engineering, data infrastructure, and applied research-adjacent work.
• Experience in fast-paced startups, early teams, or similarly high-ownership environments is a plus.
• Interest in AI systems, enterprise products, and building the infrastructure that helps improve products and models through real-world usage signals.

Title Note

At OpenAI, research and engineering hires share the internal title "Member of Technical Staff." Externally, Staff / Senior Staff signals the depth of experience, ownership, and technical leadership expected for this role.

Compensation Range

$293K - $385K USD

Benefits & Other Details

The posting notes medical, dental, and vision insurance; pre-tax accounts (HSA/FSA); 401(k) with employer match; paid parental and medical leave; paid time off; company holidays and office closures; mental health and wellness support; employer-paid basic life and disability coverage; annual learning stipend; daily meals and meal delivery credits; relocation support for eligible employees; and other taxable fringe benefits. Background checks will be administered in accordance with applicable law. Reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities are available.

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, diverse perspectives, and equal opportunity employment. The posting includes links to OpenAI's Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement and privacy policy, and provides channels for reporting non-compliance with job posting requirements.