Analytics Engineer, Safety Systems

Analytics Engineer · Senior · Full Time

San FranciscoUSD 210k – 260k1mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

As an Analytics Engineer in OpenAI's Safety Systems team, you'll architect data-centric solutions that enable safe AI deployment by designing canonical datasets, developing intuitive dashboards and reports, and partnering with engineering and research teams to transform complex safety metrics into actionable insights. This role requires 5+ years of analytics experience with expert-level SQL proficiency, BI tool mastery, and a proven track record of owning high-impact data initiatives that drive strategic decision-making across technical and executive stakeholders in a hybrid San Francisco environment.

Responsibilities

  • Design and Maintain Canonical Datasets: Architect and maintain authoritative datasets that serve as single sources of truth for safety metrics, ensuring data consistency, reliability, and governance standards across the organization while supporting both human stakeholders and AI agents in making informed decisions.
  • Develop Data Products and Visualizations: Build and refine comprehensive data products including interactive dashboards, detailed reports, agentic workflows, and machine-readable interfaces that empower diverse stakeholders to independently query, analyze, and derive insights from complex safety-related data with minimal friction.
  • Collaborate on Analytics Requirements: Partner closely with stakeholders across Engineering, Research, Data Science, and Leadership to understand decision-making needs, translate ambiguous requirements into structured analytical approaches, and design intuitive interfaces for consuming complex safety metrics tailored to each audience's technical sophistication.
  • Ensure Data Quality and User Experience: Maintain accuracy, reliability, and user-friendliness of all analytics products and visualizations by incorporating data quality principles, user experience best practices, and accessibility standards while advocating for consistency across the analytics ecosystem and addressing data integrity issues proactively.
  • Drive Safety Metrics Consumption Strategy: Own the complete consumption layer for safety metrics, defining intuitive and reliable mechanisms for Safety Systems teams, partner organizations, and company leadership to access, understand, and leverage safety data for product decisions, operational improvements, and strategic planning that ultimately supports trustworthy AI deployment.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Advanced SQL Expertise

    Expert-level proficiency in SQL with extensive experience extracting, transforming, and analyzing large-scale datasets, designing efficient ETL workflows, optimizing query performance, and working with complex data structures across relational and semi-structured databases.

  • Business Intelligence Tools

    Production-level experience with modern BI platforms such as Tableau and Looker for developing dashboards, reports, and self-serve analytics solutions that enable stakeholders to access insights independently while maintaining data consistency and performance standards.

  • Data Product Development

    Experience designing and building data products that serve diverse audiences from technical practitioners to executives, with ability to translate complex data into intuitive visualizations, scalable interfaces, and actionable insights while maintaining usability and performance.

  • AI-Assisted Data Tools and Agentic Workflows

    Hands-on experience building, deploying, or leveraging agentic data tools, LLM-powered analytics platforms, or AI-assisted data workflows that enable automated data discovery, natural language querying, or intelligent analysis recommendations.

Education

  • Technical Foundation

    Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or related quantitative field, or equivalent practical experience demonstrating mastery of data structures, algorithms, and statistical analysis methodologies relevant to analytics engineering.

Experience

  • 5+ Years in Dynamic Data Roles

    Proven experience in analytics, data engineering, or related data roles within fast-paced, outcome-driven organizations where you've demonstrated consistent ability to deliver impact through data-driven decision-making and strategic data initiatives.

  • Independent Ownership of Complex Problems

    Track record of independently owning ambiguous, high-impact business problems from initial structuring and analytical approach through clear recommendation formulation, execution planning, and stakeholder alignment, demonstrating autonomy and strategic thinking.

  • Data and Stakeholder Navigation

    Proven resourcefulness in navigating complex data environments, resolving stakeholder conflicts, managing operational blockers, and driving initiatives to completion through collaboration with cross-functional teams despite ambiguity and constraints.

  • Business Impact in GTM or Finance

    Documented track record of delivering significant, measurable business impact through data initiatives, preferably within domains like Finance, Sales, Support, or Go-To-Market functions where analytics directly influenced revenue or operational efficiency.

Skills

Required

  • SQL

    Advanced SQL for complex query construction, window functions, CTEs, and performance optimization across large datasets.

  • Tableau

    Production dashboard development, calculated fields, and data visualization design for self-serve analytics.

  • Looker

    Looker modeling, LookML development, and dashboard creation for enterprise analytics deployments.

  • ETL/Data Pipeline Design

    Designing and implementing robust data pipelines and ETL workflows for data integration and transformation at scale.

  • Data Modeling

    Dimensional modeling, star schemas, and data architecture for efficient analytics and reporting.

  • Analytics Communication

    Translating complex data findings into clear, actionable recommendations for diverse stakeholder audiences including executives and technical teams.

Preferred

  • Streamlit

    Nice to have

    Building custom data applications and interactive visualizations with Python-based Streamlit framework for rapid prototyping.

  • Plotly Dash

    Nice to have

    Developing advanced custom visualizations and interactive analytics interfaces with Plotly Dash for sophisticated data exploration.

  • Python

    Nice to have

    Python programming for data manipulation, analysis, and building custom analytics tools and workflows.

  • Trust and Safety Domain Expertise

    Nice to have

    Experience in trust and safety, integrity operations, anti-abuse systems, or related security/safety domains and their analytical requirements.

  • Large Language Models and NLP

    Nice to have

    Prior hands-on experience with NLP, large language model development, fine-tuning, or evaluation, and generative AI applications.

  • AI/ML Analytics

    Nice to have

    Experience analyzing, monitoring, and building metrics for machine learning models, AI systems, or AI safety evaluation frameworks.

  • Agentic Systems

    Nice to have

    Familiarity with AI agents, autonomous workflows, or multi-agent systems and their operational monitoring requirements.

Tech stack

Languages

SQLPython

Frameworks

StreamlitPlotly Dash

Databases

Data Warehouse

Tools

TableauLookerETL/Data Integration Tools

Other

LLM-Powered AnalyticsVersion Control

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 210,000 – 260,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Equity and Stock Options

    Competitive equity package with stock options and participation in OpenAI's growth as a leading AI research and deployment organization.

  • Comprehensive Health Benefits

    Medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage for employees and dependents with flexible plan options.

  • Retirement Planning

    401(k) retirement savings plan with employer matching to support long-term financial security and retirement goals.

  • Flexible Work Arrangement

    Hybrid work model with 3 days per week in San Francisco office and 2 days remote, allowing flexibility to balance collaboration with focused work.

  • Relocation Assistance

    Comprehensive relocation support for new employees relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area, including moving expenses and transition support.

  • Professional Development

    Access to training programs, conferences, and educational opportunities to stay current with emerging analytics technologies and industry best practices.

  • Wellness Programs

    Mental health support, fitness benefits, and wellness initiatives promoting employee wellbeing and work-life balance.

  • Paid Time Off

    Generous paid vacation, sick leave, and company holidays supporting employee rest and personal priorities.

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Application and Resume Screening

    Initial review of your background for alignment with core requirements: 5+ years analytics experience, SQL expertise, and BI tool proficiency. Highlighting specific examples of owned data initiatives and business impact significantly strengthens applications.

  2. 02

    Technical Screening Interview

    45-60 minute conversation with a member of the Safety Systems team covering SQL fundamentals, ETL design, data modeling approaches, and your analytical problem-solving methodology. Prepare real examples of complex data challenges you've solved independently.

  3. 03

    Analytics Case Study or Take-Home Assessment

    Design a realistic analytics scenario requiring you to propose data architecture, visualization approaches, and stakeholder communication strategy. This evaluates your end-to-end thinking from raw requirements through presentation-ready insights.

  4. 04

    Stakeholder Collaboration Round

    Panel interview with cross-functional partners from Engineering, Research, and Data Science assessing your ability to understand diverse needs, design intuitive data products, and communicate complex safety metrics to varied audiences from technical to executive.

  5. 05

    Leadership Interview

    Conversation with Safety Systems leadership evaluating your strategic thinking, ability to own ambiguous high-impact problems, track record of business impact, and cultural fit with OpenAI's mission of developing safe, beneficial AI systems.

  6. 06

    Reference Checks and Background Verification

    Professional reference checks and background verification conducted in accordance with San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and applicable employment laws for qualified candidates with any criminal history.

Full posting

Original listing.

About the Team

The Safety Systems team is dedicated to ensuring the safety, robustness, and reliability of AI models and their deployment in the real world.

Building on the many years of our practical alignment work and applied safety efforts, Safety Systems addresses emerging safety issues and develops new fundamental solutions to enable the safe deployment of our most advanced models and future AGI, to make AI that is beneficial and trustworthy.

Learn more about OpenAI’s approach to safety

About the Role

As an Analytics Engineer in Safety Systems, you will play a pivotal role in building a data-centric culture, enhancing decision-making processes, and driving strategic initiatives through analytics. You will partner closely with Engineering, Research, and Data Science to develop and maintain canonical data sources and source-of-truth dashboards that enable both people and AI agents across the organization to derive trustworthy, actionable insights.

You will own the consumption layer for safety metrics: defining intuitive, reliable ways for stakeholders across Safety Systems, partner teams, and leadership to understand the safety of our products, answer safety-related questions independently, and inform product decisions and company strategy.

Most importantly, you will be a core member of the Safety Systems team, collaborating with researchers and engineers to advance our goals of safe, robust, and reliable AI.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

  • Design and maintain canonical datasets that serve as sources of truth for safety metrics.

  • Develop and refine data products such as dashboards, reports, agent-enabled workflows, and machine-readable interfaces that empower stakeholders to extract and analyze data independently.

  • Work closely with stakeholders in Engineering, Research, and Data Science to understand their decision-making needs and design intuitive ways to consume complex safety metrics, including dashboards, reports, agentic workflows and other data products.

  • Ensure that analytics and visualizations are both accurate and user-friendly, incorporating user experience principles.

  • Advocate for data quality, consistency, and reliability across analytics products.

You might thrive in this role if you are/have:

  • 5+ years of experience in a relevant data role within dynamic, outcome-driven organizations.

  • Demonstrated ability to independently own ambiguous, high-impact business problems, from structuring the analytical approach to driving clear recommendations and execution.

  • Highly autonomous and resourceful, with a track record of navigating data, stakeholder, and operational blockers.

  • Highly skilled in SQL, with extensive experience extracting large datasets and designing ETL workflows.

  • Experienced in using business intelligence tools, such as Tableau and Looker, to communicate insights and enable self-serve.

  • Excellent communication skills, with demonstrated ability to collaborate with researchers, engineers, data scientists, and executives alike.

  • Best-in-class attention to detail and unwavering commitment to accuracy.

  • Proven track record of delivering significant business impact, preferably within Finance, Sales, Support, or other GTM domains.

  • Experience using or building agentic data tools, LLM-powered analytics, or other AI-assisted data workflows.

You could be an especially great fit if you have:

  • Experience in trust and safety, integrity, anti-abuse, or related fields.

  • Familiarity with advanced custom visualizations, such as Streamlit and Plotly Dash.

  • Demonstrated prior experience in NLP, large language models, or generative AI.

  • Experience building data products used by a broad range of stakeholders, from technical practitioners to company leadership.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

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