--- title: 'Manufacturing Quality Engineer, Data Center Equipment at OpenAI' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-quality-engineer-data-center-equipment-openai-united-states-kh37bgyx4nta' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-05' --- # Manufacturing Quality Engineer, Data Center Equipment at OpenAI - **Company:** [OpenAI](https://feeny.ai/companies/openai) - **Location:** United States - **Compensation:** $165k–$290k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-10-30 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-05 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/openai/2df14230-1cb5-4727-a34e-f480303e4212 ## Job description ## About the Team OpenAI and its capital and technology partners are building a global network of data centers for demanding AI workloads. The Infrastructure Quality team sets and verifies quality, reliability, and performance requirements for equipment across that network. We work with manufacturing partners, general contractors, engineers, and operations staff from supplier qualification through commissioning. Together, we verify that equipment arrives ready for installation, startup, and long-term service. ## About the Role As a Manufacturing Quality Engineer, you will oversee the quality of data center equipment at supplier factories. You will use production data, audits, and test results to identify systemic, recurring, or safety-related issues and work with suppliers to address them through Closed Loop Learning (CLL). You will work with suppliers and internal teams to define inspections and factory tests for each type of equipment. You will coordinate issue resolution before shipment and manage deviations across multiple suppliers and project sites. ## Key Responsibilities Manufacturing Monitoring and Supplier Improvement - Manufacturing monitoring: Work with Manufacturing Operations to monitor production progress, quality controls, inspection results, and test readiness. Flag emerging risks and coordinate a response with suppliers. - Product and process audits: Audit products and processes during and after production against engineering requirements, critical-to-quality (CTQ) characteristics, approved procedures, and quality standards. Document findings and track corrective actions to closure. - Manufacturing coordination: Agree on production checkpoints and inspection and testing requirements with suppliers, engineering, sourcing, supply chain, commissioning, and quality teams. Escalate risks to equipment acceptance or delivery. - Manufacturing scorecards: Develop supplier and product scorecards with Manufacturing Operations. Review audit findings, test results, recurring defects, and open issues with suppliers to prioritize improvements. - Drive continuous improvement: Lead the CLL process with suppliers. Track root cause analyses and corrective and preventive actions in a shared register. Verify that each action addresses the underlying problem before closing it. Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) - Standardize requirements and formats: Develop product-specific FAT requirements and standard test formats with equipment suppliers and OpenAI’s engineering, commissioning, quality, and Manufacturing Operations teams. - Define critical quality requirements: Document the CTQ characteristics each test must verify in an OpenAI-accepted format. Use CLL findings to revise FAT procedures so future tests check for known failure modes. - Ensure auditable supplier records: Require suppliers to retain test results and make them available for OpenAI audits. - Manage documentation and revision control: Review final FAT records and audit reports for each piece of equipment and maintain a controlled revision history. - Conduct periodic supplier audits: Check that suppliers follow approved test procedures and that their records accurately reflect the tests performed. Factory Witness Testing (FWT) - Align checklists and stakeholders: Develop standard FWT checklists with OpenAI subject matter experts, installing contractors, and the construction management team. Agree on requirements before testing begins. - Manage documentation and reporting: Collect and review final witness test reports and supporting records from participants. - Before shipment, confirm that each witness-test issue is resolved or covered by a documented deviation. Log systemic, recurring, or safety-related findings in the CLL tracker and verify the effectiveness of corrective actions with the supplier. Deviation Management - Assess short shipments and missing or failed tests in partnership with Manufacturing Operations. - Coordinate supplier support to resolve issues at the project site. - Document each deviation and track the agreed actions through closure. ## Qualifications - Bachelor’s degree in electrical, mechanical, or industrial engineering. - At least 10 years of data center industry experience spanning quality engineering and project management. - Experience coordinating FAT and FWT with suppliers and resolving equipment quality issues. - Ability to develop test checklists, define CTQs, review test results, and maintain auditable quality records. - Experience monitoring supplier production, auditing products and processes during and after production, and using scorecards to improve supplier and product quality. Experience managing controlled documents and deviations. - Ability to coordinate supplier schedules and plan inspections and tests across multiple pieces of equipment. - Ability to communicate quality requirements and coordinate decisions across suppliers, engineering, commissioning, sourcing, supply chain, manufacturing, operations, quality, and construction teams. - Willingness and ability to travel approximately 40–60% of the time to supplier manufacturing facilities and data center project sites. ## Preferred Skills - Technical knowledge of data center infrastructure, including mechanical, electrical, and controls systems. - Experience in supplier performance management for mission-critical facilities. - ASQ Certified Quality Engineer, Quality Manager, or Quality Auditor. - PMP or equivalent project management certification. - Experience in industrial or high-volume manufacturing environments. ## About OpenAI OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. For additional information, please see [OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement](https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf). Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations. To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through [this form](https://form.asana.com/?d=57018692298241&k=5MqR40fZd7jlxVUh5J-UeA). No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this [link](https://form.asana.com/?k=bQ7w9h3iexRlicUdWRiwvg&d=57018692298241). [OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy](https://cdn.openai.com/policies/global-employee-and-contractor-privacy-policy.pdf) At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology. ## About OpenAI ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company with a mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. - **Entity Type**: Private – structured as a nonprofit parent (OpenAI Foundation) governing a for-profit public benefit corporation (OpenAI Group). The company has confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the SEC, signaling a potential future IPO. - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA - **Founded**: 2015 - **Founders**: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, John Schulman, Wojciech Zaremba, and others ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Artificial intelligence research and deployment - **Target customers**: B2B (enterprises via API and platform), B2C (ChatGPT users), and developers (API, open-source models) - **Mission**: To ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) – AI systems that are generally smarter than humans – benefits all of humanity. ## Products & Services - **[ChatGPT](https://openai.com/chatgpt)**: Conversational AI assistant available via web and mobile, used by consumers and integrated into enterprise workflows. - **[GPT-4 API](https://openai.com/product)**: Large language model accessed via API for developers to build AI-powered applications (text generation, summarization, code assistance, etc.). - **[DALL-E](https://openai.com/dall-e-3)**: Image generation model that creates images from natural language descriptions. - **[Whisper](https://openai.com/research/whisper)**: Open-source speech recognition system. - **[OpenAI Agents](https://openai.com/)**: Emerging product category focused on autonomous AI agents that can perform tasks on behalf of users (announced June 2026). ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed in the provided sources. Widely reported in the press at ~$300 billion as of early 2026 (post-funding round), but this figure is not confirmed by OpenAI’s official materials. - **Key Metric**: Total funding exceeds $13 billion from Microsoft and other investors. The company has also confidentially filed a draft S-1 with the SEC (see [openai.com](https://openai.com/) – “Confidential submission of draft S-1”). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Microsoft (strategic partner and largest investor), with additional participation from Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and others. - **Growth Signals**: Active hiring with 721 open roles posted; expansion into agent-based products; confidential IPO filing; continued deployment of frontier models. ## Competitive Advantages - **First-mover & brand recognition**: ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app in history, establishing OpenAI as the household name in generative AI. - **Research leadership**: Consistently publishes cutting-edge research (GPT-4, DALL-E 3, Whisper, etc.) and attracts top AI talent. - **Compute & infrastructure**: Exclusive partnership with Microsoft provides massive cloud computing resources (Azure) for training and inference. - **Unique governance structure**: The nonprofit parent ensures mission alignment (AGI benefiting humanity) while the for-profit arm can raise capital and scale products. ## Strategic Focus - **Safe AGI development**: Continued emphasis on safety research, alignment, and responsible deployment (e.g., safety systems, model provenance). - **Enterprise expansion**: Growing ChatGPT Enterprise and API offerings for businesses. - **Agentic AI**: Building autonomous agents that can “transform work” (announced June 2026). - **IPO preparation**: Confidential S-1 filing indicates intent to go public, which will require increased financial transparency and governance maturity. ## Why Work Here - **Culture & values**: OpenAI’s stated values include “Humanity first,” “Act with humility,” “Feel the AGI,” and “Ship joy.” Operating principles emphasize agency, creativity, rapid iteration, and intense focus. - **Benefits**: Competitive health insurance, mental healthcare support, 24-week paid birth-parent leave (plus 20 weeks for other parents), generous PTO, annual learning & development stipend, daily meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), and a domestic conference budget. - **Work environment**: Hybrid/office-based (San Francisco headquarters). The company offers a residency program for researchers and engineers transitioning into AI. - **Impact**: Employees work directly on frontier AI models that shape the industry and society. The mission-driven nature attracts talent passionate about AGI’s societal implications. ## Sources 1. [OpenAI About Page](https://openai.com/about/) 2. [OpenAI Careers Page](https://openai.com/careers/) 3. [OpenAI Job Search](https://openai.com/careers/search) 4. 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