RE / RS - Foundation Retrieval Lead at OpenAI

San Francisco, California, United States

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$460,000 – $555,000Compensation

Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level

Full TimeJob Type

UnknownVisa

Artificial Intelligence, TechnologyIndustries

Requirements

Proven experience leading high-performance teams of researchers or engineers in ML infrastructure or foundational research
Deep technical expertise in representation learning, embedding models, or vector retrieval systems
Familiarity with transformer-based LLMs and how embedding spaces can interact with language model objectives
Research experience in areas such as contrastive learning, supervised or unsupervised embedding learning, or metric learning
A track record of building or scaling large machine learning systems, particularly embedding pipelines in production or research contexts
A first-principles mindset for challenging assumptions about how retrieval and memory should work for large models

Responsibilities

Lead research into embedding models and retrieval systems optimized for grounding, relevance, and adaptive reasoning
Manage a team of researchers and engineers building end-to-end infrastructure for training, evaluating, and integrating embeddings into frontier models
Drive innovation in dense, sparse, and hybrid representation techniques, metric learning, and learning-to-retrieve systems
Collaborate closely with Pretraining, Inference, and other Research teams to integrate retrieval throughout the model lifecycle
Contribute to OpenAI’s long-term vision of AI systems with memory and knowledge access capabilities rooted in learned representations

Skills

Key technologies and capabilities for this role

EmbeddingsRetrieval SystemsVector StoresDynamic IndexingMetric LearningDense RepresentationsSparse RepresentationsHybrid RepresentationsScaling LawsOptimization TechniquesModel ArchitecturesTeam Leadership

Questions & Answers

Common questions about this position

What is the salary range for this position?

The salary range is $460K - $555K.

Is this role remote or based in an office?

This role is based in San Francisco, CA, with a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. OpenAI offers relocation assistance to new employees.

What skills and experience are required for this role?

Candidates need proven experience leading high-performance teams in ML infrastructure or foundational research, deep technical expertise in representation learning, embedding models, or vector retrieval systems, and familiarity with transformer-based LLMs. Additional requirements include research experience in contrastive learning, supervised or unsupervised embedding learning, or metric learning, plus a track record of building or scaling large ML systems.

What is the team and work environment like at OpenAI?

The Foundations Research team works on high-risk, high-reward ideas to advance AI science and data for training and scaling frontier models, focusing on data, scaling laws, optimization, architectures, and efficiency. OpenAI is dedicated to ensuring general-purpose AI benefits humanity while pushing boundaries safely.

What makes a strong candidate for this role?

A strong candidate has a first-principles mindset for challenging assumptions about retrieval and memory in large models, along with proven leadership of high-performance ML teams and deep expertise in embeddings and retrieval systems.

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

Benefits

Health insurance

Dental and vision insurance

Flexible spending account for healthcare and dependent care

Mental healthcare service

Fertility treatment coverage

401(k) with generous matching

20-week paid parental leave

Life insurance (complimentary)

AD&D insurance (complimentary)

Short-term/long-term disability insurance (complimentary)

Optional buy-up life insurance

Flexible work hours and unlimited paid time off (we encourage 4+ weeks per year)

Annual learning & development stipend

Regular team happy hours and outings

Daily catered lunch and dinner

Travel to domestic conferences

Risks

Elon Musk's legal battle may pose financial and reputational challenges for OpenAI.

Customizable ChatGPT personas could lead to privacy and ethical concerns.

Competitors like Anthropic raising capital may intensify market competition.

Differentiation

OpenAI's capped profit model prioritizes ethical AI development over unlimited profit.

OpenAI's AI models, like Sora, offer unique video creation from text descriptions.

OpenAI's focus on AGI aims to create AI systems smarter than humans.

Upsides

OpenAI's $6.6 billion funding boosts its AI research and computational capacity.

Customizable ChatGPT personas enhance user engagement and satisfaction.

OpenAI's 'Operator' AI agent could revolutionize workforce automation by 2025.

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