Research Engineer, Codex at OpenAI

San Francisco, California, United States

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$380,000 – $460,000Compensation

Senior (5 to 8 years)Experience Level

Full TimeJob Type

UnknownVisa

Artificial Intelligence, TechnologyIndustries

Requirements

Excited to explore and push the boundaries of large language models, especially in the domain of software reasoning and code generation
Strong software engineering skills and enjoy quickly turning ideas into working prototypes
Think holistically about performance, balancing speed, cost, and user experience
Bring creativity and rigor to open-ended research problems and thrive in highly iterative, ambiguous environments
Experience operating across both ML systems and cloud infrastructure
Deep curiosity, strong technical fundamentals, and a bias toward impact (strengths in ML research, systems engineering, or performance optimization)

Responsibilities

Design and run experiments to improve code generation, reasoning, and agentic behavior in Codex models
Develop research insights into model training, alignment, and evaluation
Hunt down and address inefficiencies across the Codex system stack—from agent behavior to LLM inference to container orchestration—and land high-leverage performance improvements
Build tooling to measure, profile, and optimize system performance at scale
Work across the stack to prototype new capabilities, debug complex issues, and ship improvements to production
Advance the capabilities, performance, and reliability of AI coding models through research, experimentation, and system optimization
Collaborate with researchers and engineers to develop and deploy efficient, cost-effective, production-ready systems

Skills

Key technologies and capabilities for this role

Code GenerationAgentic ReasoningModel TrainingModel AlignmentModel EvaluationLLM InferenceContainer OrchestrationPerformance OptimizationSystems EngineeringExperiment Design

Questions & Answers

Common questions about this position

What is the salary range for the Research Engineer, Codex position?

The salary range is $380K - $460K.

Is this role remote or based in an office?

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

What skills are needed to thrive in this Research Engineer role?

Candidates should have strong software engineering skills, experience with ML systems and cloud infrastructure, and the ability to think holistically about performance while bringing creativity and rigor to research problems.

What is the Codex team like at OpenAI?

The Codex team builds state-of-the-art AI systems for code generation and agentic reasoning, operating across research, engineering, product, and infrastructure while owning the full lifecycle of experimentation, deployment, and iteration.

What makes a strong candidate for this Research Engineer position?

Strong candidates combine deep curiosity, strong technical fundamentals, and a bias toward impact, with excitement for pushing boundaries in large language models for software reasoning and code generation.

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