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Network Operations Engineer, AI Networking

OpenAI· Scaling
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San Francisco$157k - $302kFull-timePosted 3mo ago

About the role

Infrastructure Operations Engineer to operate and improve large-scale Ethernet fabrics supporting GPU clusters, storage, and management infrastructure for OpenAI’s AI networking across data centers. Combines production operations with automation, observability, and incident response in a global AI network.

Responsibilities

  • Own the operational health, availability, and reliability of production AI network infrastructure across Industrial Compute's data centers.
  • Monitor, troubleshoot, and resolve network incidents while meeting service-level objectives (SLOs), reducing Mean Time to Detect (MTTD), and minimizing Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR).
  • Operate and maintain large-scale Ethernet fabrics supporting GPU compute, storage, and management networks.
  • Execute production network changes, maintenance windows, and capacity expansions with minimal customer impact.
  • Manage the hardware lifecycle, including switch and optics replacements, RMA coordination, software upgrades, and preventive maintenance.
  • Support new AI cluster deployments, data center expansions, and infrastructure migrations in partnership with deployment and engineering teams.
  • Partner with cloud service providers (CSPs), colocation providers, Smart Hands teams, and hardware vendors to maintain production infrastructure.
  • Perform root-cause analysis (RCA) for production incidents and drive permanent corrective actions that eliminate recurring issues.
  • Build and maintain monitoring, telemetry, dashboards, and alerting to improve network observability and proactive issue detection.
  • Develop and improve operational runbooks, playbooks, troubleshooting documentation, and standard operating procedures.
  • Automate repetitive operational tasks using Python and infrastructure automation frameworks to reduce toil and improve efficiency.
  • Continuously identify opportunities to improve service reliability, scalability, operational maturity, and engineering efficiency.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Network Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
  • 5+ years of experience operating large-scale data center, cloud, AI, or HPC network infrastructure.
  • Experience supporting production network environments with high-availability requirements.
  • Hands-on experience with one or more of the following platforms: Cisco NX-OS, Arista EOS, NVIDIA Spectrum / Cumulus Linux, or Juniper JunOS.
  • Strong knowledge of Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking, BGP, OSPF, ECMP, MLAG, LACP, VRFs, and VLANs.
  • Experience troubleshooting physical infrastructure, including fiber optics, transceivers, DAC/AOC cables, and high-speed Ethernet links.
  • Experience performing software upgrades, hardware maintenance, and production change management.
  • Excellent analytical and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to communicate technical risk clearly across teams.

Skills

Required:Network incident managementOSPF/BGP/ECMP routingHardware and fiber troubleshootingPython 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 (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 Sep 17, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About OpenAI

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