OpenAI· Applied AI Engineering· San Francisco
Software Engineer, Data Infrastructure
Comp$185K – $385K
Classified Tasks (20)
Automate 0%Augment 85%Human-Only 15%
Augment (17)
AI assists, human decides
Operate large Spark compute fleets in production
operational
Design and build data lakes and metadata systems on Iceberg and Delta
technical
Run and maintain high-throughput streaming platforms on Kafka and Flink
operational
Provide orchestration workflows using Airflow
technical
Support and maintain ML feature engineering tooling such as Chronon
technical
Build and operate data infrastructure that supports massive compute fleets and storage systems
technical
Scale and harden big data compute and storage platforms for increased capacity and resilience
technical
Build and support high-throughput streaming systems
technical
Build and operate low-latency data ingestion pipelines
technical
Enable secure and governed data access for machine learning and analytics workloads
technical
Design systems for reliability and performance at extreme scale
technical
Ensure the data platform can scale by orders of magnitude while maintaining reliability and efficiency
technical
Accelerate engineer productivity by building and delivering data tooling and systems
technical
Architect distributed compute, data orchestration, distributed storage, streaming, and machine learning infrastructure
technical
Implement and maintain distributed compute, orchestration, storage, streaming, and ML infrastructure components
technical
Debug large-scale distributed systems and resolve infrastructure issues
technical
Provision and manage infrastructure using infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform
technical
Human-Only (3)
Requires human judgment
Take full lifecycle ownership of systems, including architecture, implementation, and production operations
leadership
Participate in on-call rotations and respond to critical incidents
operational
Collaborate with product, research, and analytics teams to build foundational technical capabilities
communication
Job description
Software Engineer, Data Infrastructure | OpenAI Careers ## Software Engineer, Data Infrastructure Applied AI Engineering - San Francisco Apply now(opens in a new window) **About the Team** Data Platform at OpenAI owns the foundational data stack powering critical product, research, and analytics workflows. We operate some of the largest Spark compute fleets in production; design, and build data lakes and metadata systems on Iceberg and Delta with a vision toward exabyte-scale architecture; run high throughput streaming platforms on Kafka and Flink; provide orchestration with Airflow; and support ML feature engineering tooling such as Chronon. Our mission is to deliver reliable, secure, and efficient data access at scale and accelerate intelligent, AI assisted data workflows. Join us to build and operate these core platforms that underpin OpenAI products, research, and analytics. We’re not just scaling infrastructure – we’re redefining how people interact with data. Our vision includes intelligent interfaces and AI-assisted workflows that make working with data faster, more reliable, and more intuitive. **About the Role** This role focuses on building and operating data infrastructure that supports massive compute fleets and storage systems, designed for high performance and scalability. You’ll help design, build, and operate the next generation of data infrastructure at OpenAI. You will scale and harden big data compute and storage platforms, build and support high-throughput streaming systems, build and operate low latency data ingestions, enable secure and governed data access for ML and analytics, and design for reliability and performance at extreme scale. You will take full lifecycle ownership: architecture, implementation, production operations, and on-call participation. You’ve supported Spark, Kafka, Flink, Airflow, Trino, or Iceberg as platforms. You’re well-versed in infrastructure tooling like Terraform, experienced in debugging large-scale distributed systems, and excited about solving data infrastructure problems in the AI space. 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 to new employees. **In this role, you will:** * Design, build, and maintain data infrastructure systems such as distributed compute, data orchestration, distributed storage, streaming infrastructure, machine learning infrastructure while ensuring scalability, reliability, and security * Ensure our data platform can scale by orders of magnitude while remaining reliable and efficient * Accelerate company productivity by empowering your fellow engineers & teammates with excellent data tooling and systems * Collaborate with product, research and analytics teams to build the technical foundations capabilities that unlock new features and experiences * Own the reliability of the systems you build, including participation in an on-call rotation for critical incidents **You might thrive in this role if you:** * Have 4+ years in data infrastructure engineering OR * Have 4+ years in infrastructure engineering with a strong interest in data * Take pride in building and operating scalable, reliable, secure systems * Are comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change * Have an intrinsic desire to learn and fill in missing skills, and an equally strong talent for sharing learnings clearly and concisely with others This role is exclusively based in our San Francisco HQ. We offer relocation assistance to new employees. **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 mis