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Field Engineer

OpenAI· Research
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San Francisco$225k - $318kFull-timePosted 10mo ago

About the role

OpenAI Robotics Field Engineer role focused on maintaining and improving the real-world robotic workcell fleet used for data acquisition, diagnostics, and live operations. Combines hardware, software, and operations to ensure high uptime and reliable system performance.

Responsibilities

  • Serve as an engineering owner for keeping a fleet of robotic workcells online in daily operation.
  • Diagnose, fix, mitigate, or escalate issues spanning mechanics, electronics, controls, software interfaces, logs, and configuration.
  • Partner closely with technicians, operators, and engineering teams to improve scalable fleet support processes.
  • Build or spec lightweight hardware and software tools that improve monitoring, diagnostics, recovery, and handoffs.
  • Create documentation, SOPs, and diagnostic playbooks that turn engineering insight into repeatable floor practice.
  • Bring up and support prototype systems, then help transition them into scalable operations as they mature.
  • Manage, triage, and respond to inbound tickets while maintaining clear issue history, ownership, and escalation paths.
  • Write lightweight analysis scripts to identify fleet trends, recurring failures, and opportunities to improve reliability.
  • Provide concise failure reports and operational feedback that help engineering teams improve system design.

Qualifications

  • Have 5+ years of experience supporting electromechanical, robotic, automation, or human-in-the-loop systems in production, R&D, lab, field, or operational environments.
  • Can independently troubleshoot messy real-world failures under time pressure, where symptoms and root causes are often different.
  • Are comfortable working across mechanical, electrical, controls, and software boundaries, including logs, configurations, and basic software debugging.
  • Have strong organizational habits around tickets, documentation, shift-to-shift communication, and follow-through.
  • Communicate clearly with operators, technicians, shift managers, and engineers, especially when uptime and clarity matter.
  • Love getting hands-on with physical systems and running complex issues to ground without adding unnecessary complexity.
  • Hold a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, Computer Engineering, or a related field.

Skills

Required:Electromechanical, robotics, automation experienceTroubleshooting real-world failuresCross-disciplinary 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 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 Sep 3, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About OpenAI

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