Skip to content
OpenAIOpenAISan Francisco, CA

Software Engineer, API Multimodal

Build and operate high-scale APIs and distributed systems for OpenAI's image, audio, and real-time multimodal models. Design low-latency infrastructure, integrate frontier research into production, and own availability, scalability, and developer experience. Requires 7+ years in backend or infrastructure engineering.

293k – 385k/yr
On-site7+ YOEBackend Engineering

About the role

Responsibilities

  • Design, build, and ship developer-facing APIs and backend services that serve frontier models.
  • Architect low-latency streaming, request, session, and model integration systems that make complex multimodal interactions reliable and intuitive at scale.
  • Work directly with Research to bring new model capabilities into production, shape the systems around them, and incorporate feedback from real-world developers and customers.
  • Own the availability, latency, scalability, and cost efficiency of the services you build.
  • Own projects from technical design and implementation through launch and ongoing iteration, while raising the team’s engineering standards.

Requirements

  • 7+ years of professional experience, excluding internships, in backend, infrastructure, platform, or product engineering roles.
  • Track record of designing, building, and operating production backend services, developer-facing APIs, or distributed systems.
  • Strong software engineering and systems fundamentals, with experience leading technically complex projects from ambiguous ideas to production.
  • Proficiency in one or more general-purpose backend languages, such as Python, Go, Rust, or TypeScript.
  • Experience building reliable, scalable systems and reasoning about distributed architecture, concurrency, latency, observability, and operational tradeoffs.
  • Product judgment and developer empathy, including an ability to turn complex model or infrastructure capabilities into clear, intuitive APIs.
  • Clear communication and a collaborative approach to working with researchers, product managers, designers, infrastructure engineers, and customers.
  • Strong sense of ownership, comfort with ambiguity, and a bias toward learning directly from users while continuously improving engineering quality.

Nice-to-Haves

  • Experience with real-time streaming, audio processing, speech systems, image generation, computer vision, or multimodal AI applications.

Skills

PythonGoRustTypeScriptDistributed SystemsAPIslow-latency streamingObservabilityComputer Visionmultimodal ai
OpenAI

Software Engineer, API Agents

OpenAISan Francisco, CA

Build core backend infrastructure and shared agent harness for OpenAI's next-generation agents, powering long-running workflows with capabilities in search, memory, tool use, multi-agent coordination, and safe execution. Requires 7+ years backend engineering experience with strong systems design and product judgment.

293k – 385k/yrOn-site7+ YOEBackend Engineering
OpenAI

Backend Software Engineer, API Enterprise Controls

OpenAISan Francisco, CA

Backend engineer building secure, scalable enterprise controls for the OpenAI API platform, including authentication, key management, compliance, observability, and secure networking. Requires 9+ years experience leading cross-functional initiatives with strong product judgment and backend systems expertise.

293k – 385k/yrHybrid9+ YOEBackend Engineering
OpenAI

Backend Software Engineer, API Multicloud

OpenAISan Francisco, CA

Backend engineer building and extending OpenAI's API platform into cloud-native environments like AWS, creating cloud-contained developer products and agentic infrastructure. Requires 7+ years experience and proficiency in backend languages and distributed systems.

293k – 385k/yrHybrid7+ YOEBackend Engineering
OpenAI

Software Engineer, Cloud Agents

OpenAISan Francisco, CA

Build and scale orchestration, sandboxing, and storage systems for long-running cloud agents powering Codex, ChatGPT, and the OpenAI API. Requires 9+ years experience leading large-scale backend or infrastructure projects.

293k – 385k/yrHybrid9+ YOEBackend Engineering
OpenAI

Software Engineer, API SDK

OpenAISan Francisco, CA +2

Build and maintain OpenAI's official SDKs across Python, Node.js, Go, Java, and Ruby. Shape developer experience for new API features and drive SDK strategy and automation.

293k – 385k/yrHybrid7+ YOEBackend Engineering