Software Engineer, Privacy Engineering (Lawful Access)
About The Position
The Privacy Engineering team builds secure, reliable systems that help OpenAI meet legal obligations while protecting user data. Working closely with Legal and engineering teams, the team supports lawful data access requests and other critical legal workflows by turning complex processes into auditable, dependable technical systems with human oversight and strong privacy and security controls. The full-stack Software Engineer will build internal tools and data pipelines for lawful data access request workflows and Legal Operations. The role spans product and data systems to make authorized retrieval and case handling accurate, efficient, and auditable. It involves translating ambiguous operational requirements into durable systems, handling sensitive data carefully, and improving technical reliability and operator experience.
Requirements
- Experience building or operating systems for lawful data access requests, with understanding of the domain’s legal-process lifecycle, privacy and security constraints, auditability requirements, and operational sensitivities.
- Strong backend engineering fundamentals and experience building production services or data-intensive systems.
- Ability to reason carefully about correctness, authorization, security, and privacy when working with sensitive data.
- Track record of turning ambiguous requirements into pragmatic plans and communicating technical tradeoffs clearly.
- End-to-end ownership, including operating what you build, and comfort learning unfamiliar products and domains.
- Care for operator experience and a drive to make complex workflows safer, clearer, and more efficient.
- Experience collaborating across Engineering, Legal, operations, Privacy, and Security stakeholders.
Responsibilities
- Design, build, and operate backend systems and workflow tooling for the full lifecycle of lawful data access requests, from intake and scoping through authorized retrieval, review, preparation, and audit.
- Build reliable data pipelines and interfaces across products and data stores so authorized teams can locate and handle records accurately and reproducibly.
- Implement least-privilege access, approval gates, provenance, audit trails, data minimization, and safe failure modes for sensitive workflows.
- Partner with Legal and Legal Operations to translate legal and operational requirements into technical designs and intuitive operator experiences.
- Identify responsible automation opportunities that reduce repetitive work while preserving human review, judgment, and accountability.
- Own production systems through testing, observability, incident response, documentation, and continuous reliability improvements.
- Help define the architecture and roadmap for reusable privacy and legal-infrastructure foundations as OpenAI’s products and obligations evolve.
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Education Level
No Education Listed
