Software Engineer, Monetization Infrastructure (SF/Seattle)
Builds core backend infrastructure for OpenAI's monetization and ads systems, architecting large-scale distributed systems focused on reliability, privacy, performance, and security. Requires 10+ years experience in mission-critical systems.
About the job
About the Role
We’re looking for an experienced Software Engineer to help build the core infrastructure behind OpenAI’s monetization and ads systems. In this foundational role, you’ll architect and implement distributed systems that power OpenAI’s monetization stack—focusing on reliability, performance, privacy, and large-scale operation.
In this role, you will:
- Design and build the foundational backend and infrastructure powering OpenAI’s monetization and ads systems
- Architect large-scale distributed systems that meet strict requirements for reliability, privacy, security, and performance
- Develop APIs, infrastructure services, and internal platforms that support ads creation, delivery, measurement, and optimization
- Work closely with Product, Research, and Design to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions
- Drive 0→1 infra development through rapid prototyping, experimentation, and iterative improvements
- Contribute to the long-term technical strategy and roadmap for the monetization infra stack
- Ensure high engineering rigor through excellent testing, documentation, observability, and operational best practices
- Build for safety, privacy, fairness, and policy alignment from first principles
- Collaborate across engineering orgs to ensure the infra layer is flexible, performant, and resilient
You might thrive in this role if you:
- Have 10+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems
- Have experience designing mission-critical systems with demanding reliability, performance, and correctness requirements
- Think in systems—architecture, data flows, operational concerns, observability, and long-term maintainability
- Are comfortable defining technical direction in ambiguous 0→1 environments
- Enjoy working cross-functionally to shape product requirements and system capabilities
- Communicate clearly, reason holistically, and make decisions grounded in user needs and long-term system health
- Bonus: Experience in ads systems, marketplaces, AI/ML infra, or other monetization-intensive domains
Skills
Distributed Systems, Backend Development, APIs, Infrastructure As Code, Observability, Reliability Engineering, Privacy Engineering, Security, Python, Scalability
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