OpenAI

Software Engineer, Cloud Agents at OpenAI (San Francisco, CA)

OpenAI· San Francisco, CA· $347k–$445k·

Role details

Salary
$347k–$445k
Work type
Hybrid
Employment
Full-Time
Equity
Yes
Skills
PythonGoRustTypeScriptDistributed systemsCloud platformsBackend engineeringInfrastructure engineering
Benefits

Equity

OpenAI at a glance

Builds frontier AI models and ships them as consumer, developer, and enterprise products — ChatGPT, the API platform, and Codex.

Builds frontier AI models and ships them as consumer, developer, and enterprise products (ChatGPT, the OpenAI API platform, Codex, and an agent layer).

~$180B raised · latest: $122B round at an $852B valuation (2026) · backed by Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, SoftBank

Summary

Design and scale orchestration, sandboxing, and storage systems for cloud-based AI agents. Partner with product engineers to build robust platforms and improve reliability, security, and cost efficiency for long-running workloads.

Job description

About the Team

The Cloud Agents team builds product infrastructure for long-running agents in the cloud: orchestration, sandboxing and isolation, secure environment connectivity, secrets and identity, observability, reliability, and cost controls. These agents securely connect to diverse developer and customer environments and use tools to accomplish goals. We partner closely with product, research, and infrastructure teams to turn agentic capabilities into dependable platforms for OpenAI products and developers building on OpenAI.

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced software engineer to help build and scale our cloud agent platform. You will design and operate systems for orchestrating agents at scale. You will work closely with product engineers on ChatGPT, API, and Codex to define the right abstractions and enable them to ship products quickly. Strong backend or infrastructure experience is important; experience with Python, Rust, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, or product platforms is especially helpful. In this role, you will:

  • Design and scale the orchestration, sandboxing and storage systems that run agentic workloads for Codex, ChatGPT, and the OpenAI API.
  • Partner with product engineers to build a platform that enables them to ship quickly and turn feedback into robust abstractions.
  • Improve reliability, security, performance, and cost efficiency for long-running agents.
  • Deploy services that can operate across different environments and clouds.

Your background might look something like:

  • 9+ years of professional engineering experience, excluding internships, in relevant roles at technology and product-driven companies.
  • Experience leading large-scale backend, platform, or infrastructure projects from ambiguous problem statements to production systems.
  • Proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Python, Go, Rust, TypeScript, or similar, and the ability to move across service, platform, and product boundaries.
  • Strong understanding of distributed systems, cloud platforms, and production reliability.
  • Enjoy abstracting away complex infrastructure and building platforms for product engineers to move faster.
  • Care about building platforms for other engineers and developers, and enjoy working closely with users to make complex infrastructure feel simple.
  • Comfort with a fast-moving pace while caring for security and operational excellence.

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. 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. 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. OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy 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.

Why work at OpenAI

  • 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.

Application questions