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Tech Lead, Deployment & Operations — Custom Infrastructure

OpenAI· Scaling
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Hybrid (San Francisco)$342k - $445k + equityFull-timePosted 5mo ago

About the role

Technical Lead to lead deployment and operations for OpenAI’s custom silicon and systems in data center environments, driving bring-up, validation, production deployment, and ongoing reliability at scale within the Silicon & Systems team.

Responsibilities

  • Lead a team responsible for deployment and operations of OpenAI’s custom silicon and systems in data center environments
  • Own the path from hardware bring-up and validation through production deployment, operational readiness, and sustained fleet support
  • Partner closely with silicon, systems, software, infrastructure, networking, data center, supply chain, and external partner teams to ensure successful deployment at scale
  • Define deployment processes, operational playbooks, technical readiness criteria, escalation paths, and reliability practices for new hardware platforms
  • Drive cross-functional execution across lab bring-up, rack/system integration, data center deployment, fleet monitoring, debugging, and issue resolution
  • Stay hands-on technically through architecture reviews, deployment planning, failure analysis, operational debugging, and critical system-level decision-making
  • Identify gaps in tooling, observability, automation, validation coverage, and operational processes, and build plans to close them
  • Establish clear metrics for deployment readiness, reliability, performance, maintainability, and operational health
  • Build a strong engineering culture grounded in ownership, technical rigor, operational excellence, and high-velocity execution
  • Ensure OpenAI’s custom hardware platforms can be deployed and operated reliably, repeatably, and safely at scale
  • Be a contributor and technical driver for the architecture and design of future ML systems

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of engineering experience in hardware systems, infrastructure, data center deployment, production operations, systems engineering, silicon bring-up, or related technical domains
  • Strong technical depth in one or more of: hardware deployment, data center operations, rack-scale systems, silicon bring-up, systems validation, fleet operations, reliability engineering, infrastructure automation, or hardware/software integration
  • Experience bringing complex hardware systems from development or validation into production environments
  • Experience working closely with silicon, systems, software, infrastructure, networking, or data center teams
  • Experience with deployment planning, operational readiness, incident response, debugging, and root-cause analysis for production systems
  • Experience building tooling, automation, observability, or operational processes that improve deployment quality and fleet reliability
  • Demonstrated ability to hire, develop, and lead senior technical talent
  • Ability to move fluidly between people leadership, technical strategy, and hands-on operational problem solving
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills, especially in high-urgency, cross-functional technical environments
  • Experience working in fast-moving environments

Skills

Required:Hardware deploymentData center operationsLeadership / people managementCross-functional collaboration
Nice to have:Operational tooling & automation

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

About OpenAI

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Company profileWebsite

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