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ChatGPT Performance Engineer

OpenAI· Applied AI
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San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, US - Remote$347k - $445k + equity + bonusFull-timePosted 11mo ago

About the role

OpenAI seeks an experienced Performance Engineer to scale performance, reliability, and efficiency of mission-critical systems (e.g., ChatGPT and the OpenAI API) through deep technical optimization, tooling, and architecture-level improvements.

Responsibilities

  • Analyze and optimize performance across application, middleware, runtime, and infrastructure layers—networking, storage, Python runtime, GPU utilization, and beyond.
  • Develop tooling and metrics that provide deep observability into system performance.
  • Collaborate closely with infra, platform, training, and product teams to identify key performance goals and drive systemic improvements.
  • Influence architecture and design decisions to prioritize latency, throughput, and efficiency at scale.
  • Lead investigations into high-impact performance regressions or scalability issues in production.
  • Drive performance testing strategies and help define SLAs/SLOs around latency and throughput for critical systems.

Qualifications

  • Have 7+ years of experience in software engineering with a strong track record in performance or reliability of high-scale distributed systems.
  • Are deeply comfortable with performance profiling tools and tracing systems.
  • Have experience optimizing performance across one or more layers of the stack (e.g., database, networking, storage, application runtime, GC tuning, Python/Golang internals, GPU utilization).
  • Have a strong understanding of OS internals, scheduling, memory management, and IO patterns.
  • Have contributed to observability, benchmarking, or performance-focused infrastructure at scale.
  • Have demonstrated success navigating ambiguity and aligning stakeholders around performance goals.
  • Value simplicity, rigor, and collaboration when solving complex systems problems.

Skills

Required:Performance profilingSystem performance optimizationObservability toolingCross-functional collaboration

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
  • Mental health and wellness support
  • Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
  • Annual learning and development stipend
  • 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
Last updated Sep 3, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About OpenAI

ai-infrastructure-and-developmentliquid-ai-recruiting-targetllmsetter-30setter-30-2026-q1speech-to-texttext-to-speechvoice-ai-stack
Company profileWebsite

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