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Software Engineer, AI for Chip Design

OpenAI· Research
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Hybrid (San Francisco)$266k - $468kFull-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Software Engineer to build research infrastructure and tooling that enable OpenAI models to design silicon, turning chip-design workflows into reliable environments for reinforcement learning and evaluation.

Responsibilities

  • Build and maintain infrastructure for reinforcement learning environments, evaluations, and long-running experiments.
  • Integrate electronic design automation (EDA) tools into workflows for RTL generation, verification, and physical design optimization.
  • Improve experiment reliability, reproducibility, observability, and performance; debug failures across tools, services, and infrastructure.
  • Develop tooling and model harnesses that let researchers test ideas quickly and measure correctness and power, performance, and area (PPA).
  • Collaborate with researchers and engineers to turn successful experiments into reusable systems and training workflows.
  • Own ambiguous projects end to end, communicate progress, and use results to guide the next iteration.

Qualifications

  • Have strong software engineering fundamentals, with experience designing, implementing, and debugging reliable systems.
  • Can work across a stack, investigate unfamiliar failures, and make practical tradeoffs between speed, correctness, and maintainability.
  • Have independently delivered substantial software projects and can explain your technical decisions and their impact.
  • Are comfortable working with researchers on evolving requirements and turning open-ended problems into working software.
  • Are interested in learning how reinforcement learning and chip-design tools fit together.
  • Care about developing safe, beneficial AI.

Skills

Required:Software engineering fundamentalsSystems design and debuggingEnd-to-end project ownership

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 Sep 10, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About OpenAI

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