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Software Engineer, Data Infrastructure - Research

OpenAI· Scaling
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San Francisco$250k - $380k + equityFull-timePosted 11mo ago

About the role

Engineer to design and implement the dataset infrastructure powering OpenAI’s next-generation training stack, building standardized dataset interfaces, scaling pipelines across thousands of GPUs, and improving performance and usability for multimodal data in training and inference.

Responsibilities

  • Design and maintain standardized dataset APIs, including for multimodal (MM) data that cannot fit in memory.
  • Build proactive testing and scale validation pipelines for dataset loading at GPU scale.
  • Collaborate with teammates to integrate datasets seamlessly into training and inference pipelines, ensuring smooth adoption and a great user experience.
  • Document and maintain dataset interfaces so they are discoverable, consistent, and easy for other teams to adopt.
  • Establish safeguards and validation systems to ensure datasets remain reproducible and unchanged once standardized.
  • Debug and resolve performance bottlenecks in distributed dataset loading (e.g., straggler systems slowing global training).
  • Provide visualization and inspection tools to surface errors, bugs, or bottlenecks in datasets.

Qualifications

  • Have strong engineering fundamentals with experience in distributed systems, data pipelines, or infrastructure.
  • Have experience building APIs, modular code, and scalable abstractions, while recognizing that abstractions ultimately serve the users and UX is an important part of the abstractions design.
  • Are comfortable debugging bottlenecks across large fleets of machines.
  • Take pride in building infrastructure that “just works,” and find joy in being the guardian of reliability and scale.
  • Are collaborative, humble, and excited to own a foundational (if not glamorous) part of the ML stack.

Skills

Required:Distributed systemsAPIs and modular codeDebugging large-scale systems

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.
Last updated Jul 16, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About OpenAI

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