Principal Software Engineer, Productivity

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

1d•$459,000 - $536,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Connector Ecosystem team builds the platform and product experiences that let people extend ChatGPT and Codex through plugins, skills, connectors, interactive apps, and open standards such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Its work covers plugin creation and publishing, reliable execution across products, permissions and approvals, and organizational administration, in partnership with Research to improve tool quality as models evolve. The product-minded Principal Software Engineer will set technical direction, build systems behind plugins, and improve how models use them. Depending on focus, the role may involve scaling generalist infrastructure and identity-related integrations, improving plugin quality through backend engineering and applied AI, or improving the product experience to drive plugin usage. The engineer will lead complex initiatives across teams and own problems from diagnosis and design through implementation and release. The role is hands-on and includes driving product and design decisions with Product, Design, Research, and engineering partners. The engineer will translate user and developer needs into priorities and guide technical choices that balance rapid iteration with reliability and maintainability. The position is based in San Francisco and follows a hybrid work model of three days in the office per week. Relocation assistance is offered to new employees.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering experience.
Track record of building and shipping products or platforms that people and developers rely on.
Experience leading complex technical initiatives across teams and driving product and design decisions in partnership with product managers and designers.
Ability to make complex capabilities intuitive and commitment to product quality.
Strong judgment about APIs and abstractions, and ability to explain the tradeoffs behind technical decisions.
Ability to work with users and developers to understand their needs and translate recurring problems into product and platform improvements.
Ability to work across product questions and technical details, collaborate across teams, and take ambiguous problems through to production.
Comfort working across web interfaces and backend systems.
Experience building products people rely on or software other developers use, such as an API or SDK, open-source project, developer platform, or internal tools with real users.

Nice To Haves

Experience with identity, permissions, or integration-heavy systems.
Experience building applied AI systems, diagnosing model–tool interactions, and measuring reliability and quality.

Responsibilities

Set technical direction and lead complex initiatives across the Plugin Ecosystem, aligning architecture and execution across teams.
Drive product and design decisions with cross-functional partners, helping define priorities and shape intuitive experiences for users and developers.
Design and ship APIs, SDKs, and services that developers use to extend ChatGPT and Codex.
Build intuitive experiences that help users discover, install, and use plugins.
Make plugins easier to create, test, publish, update, and share.
Improve when and how models use plugins, working with Research to diagnose failures and measure improvements as models evolve.
Improve plugin reliability and interaction quality across ChatGPT and Codex, including interactive apps, with clear error messages and recovery paths.
Build consistent permissions, approvals, and admin controls that help individuals and organizations adopt plugins confidently.
Work with developers and partners to turn recurring problems into improvements to the platform, tooling, and documentation.
Collaborate across engineering, Product, Research, Security, and Trust & Safety to scale plugin infrastructure and deliver safe, reliable execution.
Raise the engineering bar through mentorship, thoughtful code reviews, and clear technical guidance.