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OpenAIOpenAISan Francisco, CA

Staff+ Software Engineer, Identity Infrastructure Engineering

Leads architecture, development, and operation of secure identity infrastructure across cloud platforms and internal systems for OpenAI's research and engineering teams. Requires 10+ years experience with large-scale backend systems, identity/security tech, and languages like Go, Rust, Python.

293k – 385k/yr
Hybrid10+ YOEBackend Engineering

About the role

Responsibilities

  • Lead the architecture, development, and operation of identity infrastructure that spans cloud platforms, internal systems, and critical engineering services.
  • Design and evolve systems for authentication, authorization, access governance, auditability, and policy enforcement with a strong focus on reliability, scalability, and secure-by-default design.
  • Build foundational infrastructure and platform capabilities that are broadly used across engineering, research, and security teams.
  • Improve the reliability, observability, performance, and operational maturity of identity infrastructure that supports mission-critical systems and workflows.
  • Lead ambiguous, high-impact technical initiatives across security, infrastructure, and engineering teams, driving alignment and execution across multiple stakeholders.
  • Partner closely with engineers, researchers, and security teams to build scalable access patterns and infrastructure that enable rapid development while maintaining strong security boundaries and operational rigor.
  • Raise the engineering bar through strong technical judgment, thoughtful system design, operational excellence, and long-term ownership of critical infrastructure.

Requirements

  • 10+ years building and operating large-scale infrastructure, platform, or backend systems.
  • Deep experience with cloud infrastructure, identity systems, distributed systems, and infrastructure-as-code.
  • Experience leading complex technical initiatives across teams and driving architecture in ambiguous environments.
  • Experience building security-critical systems involving authentication, authorization, access governance, privileged access, or policy enforcement.
  • Strong software engineering fundamentals with experience in Go, Rust, Python, or similar languages.
  • Ability to debug across code, cloud infrastructure, identity systems, networking, and operations.
  • High bar for reliability, security, auditability, and operational rigor in mission-critical systems.

Skills

GoRustPythonCloud InfrastructureIdentity SystemsDistributed SystemsInfrastructure As CodeAuthenticationAuthorizationAccess Governance

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