Role Overview

The Senior Support Engineer (SSE) at OpenAI in Tokyo is a pivotal role within our Technical Support team, focused on ensuring developers and enterprises can reliably build and deploy mission-critical solutions using OpenAI's advanced AI models. Based in the heart of Tokyo, Japan, this position combines deep technical expertise with strategic customer collaboration to solve the most complex issues faced by our top enterprise accounts.

Our Technical Support team provides unparalleled technical guidance, resolves intricate production problems, and maximizes customer value from our highly capable models. We collaborate closely with Technical Success, Product, Engineering, and Infrastructure teams to deliver exceptional experiences at scale. Embracing an automation-first mindset, we leverage cutting-edge AI to revolutionize support operations.

As a Senior Support Engineer, you'll design operational processes for monitoring strategic customers and leading a 24x7 response team. This low-volume, high-difficulty role positions you at the forefront of troubleshooting, working directly with innovative AI solutions built on the OpenAI API platform. With a hybrid model requiring 3 days in the Tokyo office weekly, we offer full relocation assistance for qualified candidates.

This senior-level position demands 8+ years of experience in SRE/NOC environments, a strong software engineering foundation, and expertise in observability. If you're passionate about reliability engineering, distributed systems, and AI scalability, this is your opportunity to influence the future of technical support in the AI era.

Key Responsibilities

As a Senior Support Engineer at OpenAI Tokyo, your responsibilities span advanced troubleshooting, proactive monitoring, and operational excellence:

• Position yourself as the foremost technical expert for the OpenAI API platform, serving as the last line of defense before core Engineering escalation.
• Proactively identify and implement automation opportunities, harnessing AI advancements to scale support operations efficiently.
• Configure sophisticated monitoring and alerting workflows to detect customer-impacting issues in real-time across distributed systems.
• Collaborate with Engineering on reliability reviews, ensuring preparedness for new features, launches, and strategic customer updates with robust monitoring, alerting, and fallback strategies.
• Design and refine incident response processes, documentation, and playbooks for strategic customers, Engineering, and support teams.
• Conduct in-depth analysis of operational metrics and incident Root Cause Analyses (RCAs) to drive systemic improvements.
• Recommend and deploy enhancements to monitoring dashboards, alert configurations, and support workflows based on data-driven insights.
• Provide elite support coverage, including holidays and weekends, to maintain 24x7 availability for mission-critical enterprise accounts.
• Work hand-in-hand with Infrastructure teams to optimize customer experiences at massive scale.
• Contribute to the evolution of AI-powered technical support practices, shaping industry standards.
• Monitor top strategic customers proactively, preventing issues before they escalate.
• Leverage expertise in SLIs/SLOs, logging, tracing, and metrics to enhance system reliability.
• Partner with product teams to align support operations with customer success metrics.

These responsibilities ensure you're at the epicenter of high-stakes AI deployments, delivering tangible impact daily.

Qualifications

To excel as a Senior Support Engineer at OpenAI in Tokyo, you need:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent, with a robust software engineering foundation.
• 8+ years in SRE, NOC, or technical operations, designing monitoring in fast-paced, mission-critical settings.
• Proven expertise troubleshooting complex, systems-level production issues.
• Deep knowledge of modern observability: metrics, logging, tracing, SLIs/SLOs, alert tuning, and dashboards.
• Hands-on experience with distributed systems monitoring and reliability engineering.
• Strong automation skills, ideally incorporating AI/ML for operational scaling.
• Track record of incident response process design and RCA leadership.
• Excellent collaboration with cross-functional teams (Engineering, Product, Support).
• Comfort with 24x7 on-call, including weekends/holidays.
• Japanese/English bilingual preferred for Tokyo-based enterprise interactions.

Candidates thriving here are problem-solvers who anticipate issues and innovate relentlessly.

Salary & Benefits

OpenAI offers competitive compensation for Senior Support Engineers in Tokyo, estimated at $150,000 - $250,000 USD yearly base, plus bonuses, equity, and perks tailored to Japan. Full details upon application.

• Relocation assistance including visa support.
• Hybrid Tokyo office model (3 days/week).
• Comprehensive health, dental, vision insurance.
• Generous PTO, parental leave, sabbaticals.
• Stock options in a high-growth AI leader.
• Professional growth stipend and conferences.
• Wellness programs, gym reimbursements.
• Team events and cultural integration support.

Why Join OpenAI?

OpenAI is redefining AI's potential, and our Tokyo team powers enterprise adoption in Asia. Work on groundbreaking tech, collaborate with global experts, and enjoy Tokyo's vibrant tech ecosystem. With hybrid flexibility, relocation aid, and mission-driven culture, this is where top SRE talent builds the future.

Our automation-first approach means you'll pioneer AI in support ops, impacting millions. Join a collaborative, innovative environment prioritizing impact over bureaucracy.

How to Apply

Ready to elevate OpenAI's support excellence? Submit your resume, cover letter highlighting SRE experience, and GitHub/portfolio via our careers portal. We review applications weekly—apply now!