Performance Engineer at OpenAI

San Francisco, California, United States

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$325,000 – $405,000Compensation

Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level

Full TimeJob Type

UnknownVisa

Artificial Intelligence, TechnologyIndustries

Requirements

7+ years of experience in software engineering with a strong track record in performance or reliability of high-scale distributed systems
Deeply comfortable with performance profiling tools and tracing systems
Experience optimizing performance across one or more layers of the stack (e.g., database, networking, storage, application runtime, GC tuning, Python/Golang internals, GPU utilization)
Strong understanding of OS internals, scheduling, memory management, and IO patterns
Contributed to observability, benchmarking, or performance-focused infrastructure at scale
Demonstrated success navigating ambiguity and aligning stakeholders around performance goals
Value simplicity, rigor, and collaboration when solving complex systems problems

Responsibilities

Analyze and optimize performance across application, middleware, runtime, and infrastructure layers—networking, storage, Python runtime, GPU utilization, and beyond
Develop tooling and metrics that provide deep observability into system performance
Collaborate closely with infra, platform, training, and product teams to identify key performance goals and drive systemic improvements
Influence architecture and design decisions to prioritize latency, throughput, and efficiency at scale
Lead investigations into high-impact performance regressions or scalability issues in production
Drive performance testing strategies and help define SLAs/SLOs around latency and throughput for critical systems

Skills

Key technologies and capabilities for this role

PythonGPUNetworkingStorageProfilingInstrumentationObservabilityMetricsPerformance TestingSLOsLatency OptimizationThroughput OptimizationRoot Cause Analysis

Questions & Answers

Common questions about this position

What is the salary range for the Performance Engineer position?

The salary range is $325K - $405K.

Is this a remote position or does it require office work?

This information is not specified in the job description.

What skills and experience are required for this role?

Candidates need 7+ years of software engineering experience with a focus on performance or reliability in high-scale distributed systems, deep comfort with performance profiling tools and tracing systems, and experience optimizing across stack layers like networking, storage, Python/Golang internals, and GPU utilization.

What is the team culture like at OpenAI for this role?

The team prioritizes safety over unfettered growth, thrives in ambiguous environments, values deep systems understanding, and emphasizes collaboration, simplicity, rigor, and delivering measurable impact.

What makes a strong candidate for the Performance Engineer role?

Strong candidates have a proven track record in performance optimization of high-scale systems, experience with observability and benchmarking, a strong grasp of OS internals, and the ability to navigate ambiguity while aligning stakeholders.

OpenAI

Develops safe and beneficial AI technologies

About OpenAI

OpenAI develops and deploys artificial intelligence technologies aimed at benefiting humanity. The company creates advanced AI models capable of performing various tasks, such as automating processes and enhancing creativity. OpenAI's products, like Sora, allow users to generate videos from text descriptions, showcasing the versatility of its AI applications. Unlike many competitors, OpenAI operates under a capped profit model, which limits the profits it can make and ensures that excess earnings are redistributed to maximize the social benefits of AI. This commitment to safety and ethical considerations is central to its mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) serves all of humanity.

San Francisco, CaliforniaHeadquarters

2015Year Founded

$18,433.2MTotal Funding

LATE_VCCompany Stage

AI & Machine LearningIndustries

1,001-5,000Employees