Principal Software Engineer, B2B Engineering

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

About The Position

OpenAI’s B2B Engineering team brings our most capable technology to the world through our developer platform and enterprise products. We build the backend systems, APIs, and infrastructure that power how developers and organizations use OpenAI in production. Our work spans distributed systems, data infrastructure, platform services, and enterprise-grade capabilities like security, compliance, authentication, and reliability. We partner closely with product, research, design, infrastructure, and forward-deployed teams to turn cutting-edge AI capabilities into scalable, dependable products. We’re looking for a Principal Software Engineer to design and scale the systems that power our developer and enterprise-facing products. You’ll lead the architecture of backend services and platform capabilities that bring new AI functionality into production safely, reliably, and at global scale. This role spans a broad technical surface area, including distributed systems, APIs, databases, data pipelines, and secure enterprise infrastructure. You’ll help shape both the technical foundation and the product experience of our platform, with a high bar for performance, safety, reliability, and API design.

Requirements

Have significant experience building, scaling, and evolving production backend systems in fast-moving environments
Bring deep expertise in software engineering fundamentals, distributed systems, and API design
Are proficient in one or more backend languages such as Python, Go, Rust, or TypeScript
Have a track record of leading complex technical initiatives and driving architecture across teams or critical product areas
Care deeply about reliability, safety, security, and performance in production environments
Have strong product instincts and a high bar for developer experience and interface design
Are comfortable working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and can create clarity where little exists
Own problems end-to-end and are eager to learn whatever is needed to solve them
Build thoughtfully, move with urgency, and collaborate effectively across disciplines
Influence technical direction through strong judgment, clear communication, and consistently high-quality execution

Nice To Haves

Have experience as a founder or early engineer at a startup, or have built products and platforms from scratch

Responsibilities

Design, build, and scale the backend services, APIs, and infrastructure that power OpenAI’s developer and enterprise products
Lead the architecture of distributed systems, databases, and data pipelines that support large-scale, high-reliability production workloads
Own major platform capabilities end-to-end, from early technical strategy and design through implementation, launch, and long-term operation
Shape the design of our APIs with care and intentionality, treating API interfaces as core product surfaces and driving a high-quality developer experience
Build secure, reliable, and compliant systems that meet the needs of both enterprise and developer use cases
Partner closely with product, research, design, infrastructure, and forward-deployed engineering teams to bring new capabilities into production
Drive technical direction across complex problem spaces, making sound architectural tradeoffs that balance speed, quality, and long-term maintainability
Improve engineering velocity by building internal tooling, platform abstractions, and systems that increase leverage across the broader organization
Raise the bar for engineering quality, system design, operational excellence, and technical decision-making across teams
Help identify and solve ambiguous, high-impact technical problems that cut across multiple systems and stakeholders