About the role
About
the Team OpenAI’s B2B Engineering team brings our most capable technology to the world through our developer platform and enterprise products. We build the backend systems, APIs, and infrastructure that power how developers and organizations use OpenAI in production. Our work spans distributed systems, data infrastructure, platform services, and enterprise-grade capabilities like security, compliance, authentication, and reliability. We partner closely with product, research, design, infrastructure, and forward-deployed teams to turn cutting-edge AI capabilities into scalable, dependable products.
About
the Role We’re looking for a Principal Software Engineer to design and scale the systems that power our developer and enterprise-facing products. You’ll lead the architecture of backend services and platform capabilities that bring new AI functionality into production safely, reliably, and at global scale. This role spans a broad technical surface area, including distributed systems, APIs, databases, data pipelines, and secure enterprise infrastructure. You’ll help shape both the technical foundation and the product experience of our platform, with a high bar for performance, safety, reliability, and API design. In this role, you will Design, build, and scale the backend services, APIs, and infrastructure that power OpenAI’s developer and enterprise products Lead the architecture of distributed systems, databases, and data pipelines that support large-scale, high-reliability production workloads Own major platform capabilities end-to-end, from early technical strategy and design through implementation, launch, and long-term operation Shape the design of our APIs with care and intentionality, treating API interfaces as core product surfaces and driving a high-quality developer experience Build secure, reliable, and compliant systems that meet the needs of both enterprise and developer use cases Partner closely with product, research, design, infrastructure, and forward-deployed engineering teams to bring new capabilities into production Drive technical direction across complex problem spaces, making sound architectural tradeoffs that balance speed, quality, and long-term maintainability Improve engineering velocity by building internal tooling, platform abstractions, and systems that increase leverage across the broader organization Raise the bar for engineering quality, system design, operational excellence, and technical decision-making across teams Help identify and solve ambiguous, high-impact technical problems that cut across multiple systems and stakeholders You might thrive in this role if you Have significant experience building, scaling, and evolving production backend systems in fast-moving environments Bring deep expertise in software engineering fundamentals, distributed systems, and API design Are proficient in one or more backend languages such as Python, Go, Rust, or TypeScript Have a track record of leading complex technical initiatives and driving architecture across teams or critical product areas Care deeply about reliability, safety, security, and performance in production environments Have strong product instincts and a high bar for developer experience and interface design Are comfortable working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and can create clarity where little exists Own problems end-to-end and are eager to learn whatever is needed to solve them Build thoughtfully, move with urgency, and collaborate effectively across disciplines Influence technical direction through strong judgment, clear communication, and consistently high-quality execution Have experience as a founder or early engineer at a startup, or have built products and platforms from scratch About OpenAI OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence
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