Rack Power Engineer

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

19h•$287,000 - $485,000•Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops AI-native silicon and system-level solutions for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. Building on efforts like Jalapeño, the team is developing future generations of AI-native silicon and tightly integrated systems to power the next generation of frontier models. By co-designing chips, systems, tools, and methodologies, the team helps deliver faster, more efficient, and production-ready hardware for OpenAI’s supercomputing platform. We’re looking for a Rack Power Engineer with deep expertise in high-power conversion and distribution to design, qualify, and support power systems for AI supercomputers. You will own rack power solutions—including power shelves, AC/DC rectifiers, power supply units (PSUs), power management controllers (PMCs), and high-current distribution—from requirements and supplier development through deployment. You will also monitor fleet rack power health, lead debugging and root-cause investigations, and drive improvements into hardware, firmware, and qualification coverage. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

Requirements

At least 10 years of industry experience in power electronics or power delivery systems, including hands-on design and qualification of high-power rack or data center power systems.
A master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Strong knowledge of AC/DC rectifiers, power shelves, PSUs, and DC distribution, including three-phase inputs, power conversion topologies, control-loop stability, current sharing, redundancy, protection coordination, and high-current busbars and connectors.
Experience defining and qualifying PMCs or related power controllers, including telemetry, fault management, hardware–firmware integration, and interfaces such as PMBus, I²C, CAN, or Ethernet. Understand how rack power controls interact with system power management.
Strong laboratory and debugging skills using oscilloscopes, power analyzers, programmable AC sources, electronic loads, and data acquisition systems. Can build automated tests, analyze fleet telemetry with tools such as Python, and drive root-cause investigations through verified corrective actions.
Have taken power products from requirements through qualification and production with suppliers and cross-functional teams. Bring familiarity with safety, EMC, and reliability qualification; communicate technical trade-offs clearly; and work effectively through ambiguity.

Nice To Haves

Experience with high-density AI racks, OCP power architectures, or energy-storage systems is a plus.

Responsibilities

Own rack power architecture and requirements for high-power AI supercomputing systems, including power budgets, AC input interfaces, DC distribution, redundancy, efficiency, serviceability, and integration with data center infrastructure.
Drive the design and supplier development of power shelves, rectifiers, PSUs, PMCs, busbars, connectors, and protection circuits. Review electrical designs and control behavior, and evaluate performance, cost, reliability, and availability trade-offs.
Define and execute component, shelf, and rack qualification plans covering load transients, current sharing, hot-swap, startup and shutdown, redundancy failover, fault protection and recovery, thermal limits, and AC disturbances and ride-through.
Partner with firmware and software teams to define and validate PMC functionality, telemetry, alarms, power sequencing, power capping, and fault handling. Verify communication interfaces, firmware updates, interoperability, and regression coverage.
Characterize rack power under representative AI workloads. Translate steady-state demand and fast power excursions into design margins, protection settings, energy-storage needs, and deployment requirements with system and data center teams.
Establish fleet rack power health metrics with operations teams. Analyze telemetry, event logs, and failure trends to detect degraded power capacity, redundancy loss, current imbalance, and recurring power faults.
Lead lab and fleet debugging across power hardware, firmware, and system interfaces. Reproduce failures, identify root causes with suppliers, validate corrective actions, and feed lessons into designs, qualification tests, and fleet remediation.
Work with electrical, mechanical, thermal, firmware, manufacturing, reliability, and data center teams to take rack power systems through prototype builds, qualification, production, and deployment. Drive supplier test reviews, manufacturing test coverage, and closure of power-related issues.
Evaluate emerging rack power technologies, including higher-voltage DC distribution and battery or supercapacitor energy storage. Partner with suppliers to qualify viable solutions and with safety and compliance teams to address applicable product requirements.