Backend Software Engineer

About the Team
The Intelligent Support Engineering team is scaling OpenAI with OpenAI. We apply our latest models, technologies, and products (some external, some still in the lab) to real-world problems in order to assist with or automate work across the User Operations organization. We share what we learn back to the broader product and research teams, and we look to scale our solutions to new problem spaces within OpenAI. We love building products for folks sitting right next to us, and we take the time to add the touches that delight. Our goal is to prototype fast, then build for reliable long-term impact. We’re constantly looking for the similarities and patterns in different types of work, and focus on building simple, generic patterns that we can apply across many domains.

The work of this team is intended to be the best example of leveraging OpenAI technologies. Our intent is to build systems to the point where the world can see the leverage that is possible with well designed AI-based implementations. We do this by working through internal use cases focused on Customers (specifically knowledge systems, automation systems, and automated agent systems) to prove impact, then we scale.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Backend engineer who’s passionate about blending production-ready platform architecture with new tech and new paradigms. You’ll push the boundaries of OpenAI’s newest technologies to enable interactions and automations that are not only functional, but delightful. We value proactive, customer-centric engineers who can get the foundational details right (data models, architecture, security) in service of enabling great products.
In this role, you will:

• Own the end-to-end development lifecycle for new platform capabilities and integrations with other systems

• Collaborate closely with engineers, data scientists, information systems architects, and internal customers to understand their problems and implement effective solutions

• Work with product and research team to share relevant feedback and iterate on applying their latest models

Your background might look something like:

• 4+ years of professional engineering experience (excluding internships) in relevant roles at tech and product-driven companies

• Former founder, or early engineer at a startup who has built a product from scratch is a plus

• Proficiency with JavaScript, React, and other web technologies

• Proficiency with a backend language (we use Python)

• Some experience with relational databases like Postgres/MySQL

• Interest in AI/ML (direct experience not required)

• Proven ability to thrive in fast-growing, product-driven companies by effectively navigating loosely defined tasks and managing competing priorities or deadlines.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. 

OpenAI Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement

For US Based Candidates: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.