Software Engineer, Compute - Storage at OpenAI - San Francisco Careers

Join OpenAI's Storage Infrastructure team and build the exascale storage systems powering the world's most advanced AI research. This senior-level Software Engineer role focuses on designing, building, and operating massively scalable storage solutions that handle petabytes of research data across multiple regions.

Role Overview

The Storage Infrastructure team at OpenAI provides mission-critical APIs for data access, intelligent placement, and automated lifecycle management. Our systems ensure that storage capacity, throughput, and IOPS always meet the demanding needs of AI researchers pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence.

As a Software Engineer, Compute - Storage, you'll tackle some of the most challenging distributed systems problems in AI. We're building exascale storage platforms that must deliver consistent performance at unprecedented scale while maintaining ironclad reliability, security, and cost efficiency. This role requires deep expertise in distributed filesystems, cloud-native storage architectures, and AI/ML data patterns.

Located in the heart of San Francisco, you'll collaborate with world-class researchers and engineers who share your passion for solving complex technical challenges that impact humanity's future.

Key Responsibilities

Exascale Data Management: Develop production-grade software that manages exabytes of research data, ensuring researchers can access datasets with minimal latency regardless of scale.

System Reliability: Drive storage system reliability through sophisticated monitoring, automated failover mechanisms, and predictive capacity planning. Target 99.99%+ uptime for mission-critical AI workloads.

Researcher Collaboration: Partner directly with AI researchers to understand unique data access patterns, from massive training datasets to real-time inference requirements, and build storage solutions that accelerate their breakthroughs.

Security Leadership: Implement defense-in-depth security measures protecting OpenAI's most valuable research assets, including encryption at rest/transit, access controls, and threat detection systems.

Cost Optimization: Architect storage solutions that balance performance with cost efficiency, leveraging tiered storage, intelligent data placement, and automated lifecycle policies.

Multi-Region Operations: Design and operate storage systems spanning multiple cloud regions with seamless data replication, disaster recovery, and global namespace consistency.

Performance Engineering: Optimize storage throughput and IOPS to support high-concurrency AI training workloads, implementing caching strategies, prefetching, and I/O scheduling optimizations.

Qualifications

Technical Expertise: 5+ years experience building distributed storage systems at scale. Deep knowledge of distributed systems principles including CAP theorem, consensus protocols, and fault tolerance.

Cloud Experience: Hands-on experience with public cloud platforms (Azure strongly preferred) including managed storage services, networking, and compute integration.

Programming Mastery: Strong systems programming skills in Python, Go, Rust, or C++. Experience with asynchronous programming, memory management, and performance optimization.

AI/ML Familiarity: Understanding of AI training data pipelines, checkpointing requirements, tensor storage formats, and researcher workflows.

Operational Excellence: Proven track record on-call and production operations for large-scale storage systems. Experience with observability tooling (Prometheus, Grafana) and incident response.

Salary & Benefits

OpenAI offers competitive compensation packages for senior storage engineers in San Francisco, typically ranging from $250,000 - $450,000+ total compensation including base salary, equity, and bonuses. Exact compensation depends on experience and qualifications.

Our comprehensive benefits package includes:

• Top-tier medical, dental, vision coverage
• Generous 401(k) matching
• Unlimited PTO with recharge encouragement
• Parental leave for all caregivers
• Professional development budget
• Relocation assistance
• Equity with meaningful ownership

Why Join OpenAI?

OpenAI isn't just another tech company - we're building artificial general intelligence to benefit all of humanity. Your storage systems will power breakthroughs that redefine what's possible with AI.

Work with the brightest minds in AI research and engineering. Enjoy a culture that values impact over process, ownership over hierarchy, and curiosity over credentials. San Francisco location offers unparalleled access to AI talent and innovation ecosystem.

We're committed to diversity and inclusion, recognizing that the best solutions come from diverse perspectives. OpenAI provides equal employment opportunities regardless of protected characteristics.

How to Apply

Ready to build the storage foundation for AGI? Submit your application including:

• Resume highlighting relevant storage/distributed systems experience
• GitHub/portfolio with storage-related projects
• Explanation of your most challenging storage scalability project

Our interview process includes technical screens, system design interviews focused on storage challenges, and team collaboration exercises. We prioritize candidates who demonstrate both depth in storage engineering and ability to collaborate with researchers.

OpenAI is actively hiring for this role. Apply today to join the mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity.