Workload Porting & Performance Engineer

Details

About the Team

OpenAI’s Infrastructure organization builds and evaluates the systems that power advanced AI workloads. We work closely with hardware, modeling, and architecture teams to ensure that new platforms deliver real-world performance aligned with workload needs.

Our team focuses on understanding workload behavior across evolving hardware platforms—bridging the gap between theoretical capability and observed system performance.

About the Role

We are seeking a Workload Porting & Performance Engineer to evaluate new hardware platforms by porting benchmarks and real-world workloads, analyzing performance, and identifying system bottlenecks.

In this role, you will bring up workloads on new systems, characterize performance behavior, and adapt workloads to better utilize hardware capabilities. You will play a critical role in validating new platforms and ensuring that performance aligns with expectations across compute, memory, and networking subsystems.

This role requires strong hands-on experience with performance analysis, workload optimization, and system-level debugging across hardware and software boundaries.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance.

Key Responsibilities

• Port and enable benchmarks and real-world workloads on new hardware platforms.
• Evaluate system performance across compute, memory, storage, and networking subsystems.
• Identify and analyze performance bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
• Adapt and optimize workloads to better utilize hardware capabilities.
• Develop and run performance experiments and profiling workflows.
• Compare expected vs. observed performance and provide feedback to:
  • hardware architecture teams
  • performance modeling teams
  • system and software engineers.
• Debug issues across the stack, including software, runtime, and hardware interactions.
• Provide actionable insights to guide platform readiness and deployment decisions.

Qualifications

• Experience with performance analysis, benchmarking, or workload optimization.
• Strong understanding of system architecture, including CPU/GPU, memory, and I/O subsystems.
• Experience porting or adapting workloads across different hardware platforms.
• Familiarity with profiling tools and performance debugging techniques.
• Ability to identify root causes of performance issues across hardware/software boundaries.
• Experience working in large-scale or distributed system environments.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with AI/ML workloads, including training or inference systems.
• Familiarity with GPU or accelerator-based systems.
• Experience working with low-level performance tools (profilers, tracing, microbenchmarks).
• Background in systems software, compilers, or runtime optimization.
• Experience collaborating with hardware and architecture teams on performance validation.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
• Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
• Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)
• Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
• 13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)
• Mental health and wellness support
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
• Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth
• Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
• Relocation support for eligible employees
• Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.

More details about our benefits are available to candidates during the hiring process.