--- title: 'SoC Engineer at OpenAI' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/soc-engineer-openai-san-francisco-50m6hpx9pbtx' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-05' --- # SoC Engineer at OpenAI - **Company:** [OpenAI](https://feeny.ai/companies/openai) - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Compensation:** $287k–$485k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-10-14 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-05 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/openai/e8e7fd72-bc4e-4717-8a67-81e4798372c7 ## Job description ## About the Team OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops custom silicon and systems for advanced AI workloads. Our first-party accelerator team works across chip architecture, design, software, and systems to build the computing platforms that power frontier models. We are a small, dynamic team that values technical breadth, hands-on engineering, and creative approaches to building complex hardware. ## About the Role We’re looking for a SoC Engineer to help architect, design, and integrate OpenAI’s first-party AI accelerators. You will build the processor, interconnect, I/O, and platform infrastructure that connects our accelerator designs into complete, functional systems. This role combines architectural judgment with hands-on implementation. You’ll work closely with design, architecture, verification, and software teams throughout development, from defining subsystem requirements and integrating IP to pre-silicon validation, silicon bring-up, and post-silicon debug. You should enjoy stretching across domains, rolling up your sleeves, and doing the work needed to make a complex system function end to end. In this role, you will: - Define and implement SoC architectures spanning embedded processors, AMBA interconnects, peripheral subsystems, PCI Express, Ethernet and die-to-die interfaces. - Develop the microarchitecture and RTL design of subsystems supporting I/O and SoC functionality. - Integrate Arm Cortex-M and Cortex-A processors, AXI/APB fabrics, and third-party controller IP, including the RTL and glue logic needed to connect these components. - Develop reset and boot architectures, working with firmware and software teams to define sequencing, initialization, and survivability behavior. - Incorporate debug, test, and security requirements into the SoC architecture and implementation, partnering with other silicon designers to make the silicon observable, testable, and secure. - Drive PCIe and other I/O integration, including controller and PHY interfaces, high-speed SerDes, and die-to-die connectivity. - Contribute to power management and security architecture and design. - Work directly with third-party IP vendors to define technical requirements, evaluate IP capabilities, coordinate deliverables, and resolve issues from integration through silicon bring-up. - Work across architecture, design, verification, physical design, and software teams to define interfaces, resolve integration issues, and carry designs through pre-silicon validation and post-silicon bring-up. - Work closely with Firmware and Software teams to define boot, configuration and runtime behavior and functionality. - Build and apply automation and AI-assisted tools to accelerate design, IP integration, consistency checking, and debugging while maintaining engineering quality. You might thrive in this role if you: - Have experience in SoC architecture, RTL design, and subsystem or full-chip integration, with hands-on ownership through implementation and silicon bring-up. - Are familiar with Arm processor subsystems, including Cortex-M and Cortex-A, and AMBA protocols and interconnects such as AXI and APB. - Understand PCIe protocols and have experience configuring, integrating, and debugging controller IP. - Have experience integrating high-speed I/O, including SerDes/PHY interfaces and die-to-die links. - Have experience working directly with third-party IP vendors to evaluate technical fit, communicate requirements, and drive integration and debug issues to resolution. - Understand reset and boot architecture and the interactions between hardware, firmware, and software during initialization and recovery. - Have experience designing for debug, test, and security, and can reason about how these requirements affect the broader system. - Are comfortable writing and debugging Verilog/SystemVerilog and building scripts or tools to make integration work more efficient and reliable. - Enjoy stretching into multiple domains, learning unfamiliar parts of a system, and rolling up your sleeves to build and debug. - Enjoy working on a small, dynamic team where priorities evolve and engineers take broad ownership. - Are excited about creatively applying automation and AI tools to hardware design and integration work. To comply with U.S. export control laws and regulations, candidates for this role may need to meet certain legal status requirements as provided in those laws and regulations. ## 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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