Data Engineer, Analytics

Data Engineer · Senior · Full Time

San FranciscoUSD 230k – 385k34mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

OpenAI is seeking an experienced Data Engineer to lead development of critical data pipelines powering AI safety systems, analytics, and business decisions. The role involves building scalable data infrastructure for ChatGPT and other AI products, collaborating with research teams, and handling massive-scale user event data in a high-growth AI company environment.

Responsibilities

  • Data Pipeline Architecture: Design, build, and manage robust data pipelines ensuring seamless integration of user event data into the data warehouse
  • Canonical Dataset Development: Develop and maintain canonical datasets to track critical product metrics including user growth, engagement, and revenue analytics
  • Cross-functional Collaboration: Work with Infrastructure, Data Science, Product, Marketing, Finance, and Research teams to understand data requirements and deliver tailored solutions
  • System Implementation: Implement fault-tolerant, scalable systems for high-volume data ingestion and real-time processing
  • Data Architecture Leadership: Participate in strategic data architecture and engineering decisions, leveraging extensive experience to guide technical direction
  • Security and Compliance: Ensure data security, integrity, and compliance with industry standards and OpenAI's safety requirements
  • AI Research Support: Collaborate directly with ChatGPT researchers and ML teams to provide data infrastructure supporting model training and deployment
  • Business Intelligence: Power critical business decisions through data-driven insights and analytics supporting rapid company growth

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Data Engineering Experience

    Minimum 3+ years of dedicated data engineering experience building production data systems

  • Software Engineering Background

    8+ years total software engineering experience including data engineering roles

  • Programming Proficiency

    Expert-level proficiency in Python, Scala, or Java for data engineering applications

  • Distributed Systems

    Hands-on experience with Hadoop, Flink, and distributed storage systems (HDFS, S3)

  • Apache Spark Expertise

    Strong Spark skills including writing, debugging, and optimizing Spark code for performance

  • ETL Orchestration

    Experience with workflow schedulers like Airflow, Dagster, Prefect for production data pipelines

Education

  • Technical Degree

    Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related technical field preferred

  • Advanced Education

    Master's degree in Data Science, Computer Science, or related field advantageous but not required

Experience

  • Large-Scale Data Systems

    Experience building and maintaining data systems handling millions of daily events

  • Cloud Platforms

    Hands-on experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure for scalable data infrastructure

  • Data Warehouse Design

    Experience designing and implementing enterprise data warehouses and data lakes

  • Real-time Processing

    Background in stream processing and real-time analytics for high-velocity data

  • ML Pipeline Integration

    Experience supporting machine learning workflows and model training infrastructure

Skills

Required

  • Python Programming

    Advanced Python skills for data pipeline development and automation

  • Apache Spark

    Production experience with Spark for distributed data processing and analytics

  • ETL Development

    Expertise in Extract, Transform, Load processes and data integration patterns

  • Distributed Systems

    Understanding of distributed computing principles and fault-tolerant system design

  • Data Modeling

    Skills in dimensional modeling, data warehousing concepts, and schema design

  • Workflow Orchestration

    Experience with Airflow, Dagster, or similar tools for pipeline scheduling and monitoring

Preferred

  • Scala Programming

    Nice to have

    Functional programming experience for advanced Spark applications

  • Java Development

    Nice to have

    Enterprise Java experience for large-scale distributed systems

  • Stream Processing

    Nice to have

    Real-time data processing with Kafka, Kinesis, or similar streaming platforms

  • Machine Learning Operations

    Nice to have

    MLOps experience supporting model training and deployment pipelines

  • Data Governance

    Nice to have

    Knowledge of data privacy, security, and regulatory compliance requirements

  • Performance Optimization

    Nice to have

    Experience optimizing data pipelines for cost efficiency and processing speed

Tech stack

Languages

PythonScalaJavaSQL

Frameworks

Apache SparkHadoopApache Flink

Databases

Data WarehouseHDFSNoSQL Databases

Tools

Apache AirflowDagsterPrefectAmazon S3DockerKubernetes

Other

ETL/ELT ProcessesStream ProcessingData ModelingCI/CD Pipelines

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 230,000 – 385,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Equity Compensation

    Significant equity package allowing employees to share in OpenAI's growth and success

  • Relocation Assistance

    Full relocation support for candidates moving to San Francisco headquarters

  • Health Insurance

    Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents

  • Disability Accommodations

    Reasonable accommodations provided for applicants and employees with disabilities

  • Professional Development

    Opportunities to work with cutting-edge AI research and collaborate with industry-leading researchers

  • Mission-Driven Work

    Contribute to ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity

  • Equal Opportunity Employment

    Inclusive workplace committed to diversity and equal opportunity regardless of background

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Application Review

    Initial screening of resume, portfolio, and technical background by recruiting team

  2. 02

    Recruiter Phone Screen

    30-minute conversation covering background, interest in OpenAI, and salary expectations

  3. 03

    Technical Assessment

    Take-home coding challenge focused on data engineering problems, ETL design, and Spark optimization

  4. 04

    Technical Interview Round 1

    1-hour virtual interview covering system design for data pipelines, distributed computing concepts, and SQL skills

  5. 05

    Technical Interview Round 2

    1-hour interview focusing on Spark programming, performance optimization, and troubleshooting scenarios

  6. 06

    Cross-functional Interview

    45-minute discussion with product or research team members about collaboration and data requirements

  7. 07

    Final Interview

    1-hour conversation with hiring manager covering cultural fit, career goals, and OpenAI's mission alignment

  8. 08

    Reference Checks

    Professional reference verification and background check completion before offer

Full posting

Original listing.

About the team

The Applied team works across research, engineering, product, and design to bring OpenAI’s technology to consumers and businesses.

We seek to learn from deployment and distribute the benefits of AI, while ensuring that this powerful tool is used responsibly and safely. Safety is more important to us than unfettered growth.

About the role:

We're seeking a Data Engineer to take the lead in building our data pipelines and core tables for OpenAI. These pipelines are crucial for powering analyses, safety systems that guide business decisions, product growth, and prevent bad actors. If you're passionate about working with data and are eager to create solutions with significant impact, we'd love to hear from you. This role also provides the opportunity to collaborate closely with the researchers behind ChatGPT and help them train new models to deliver to users. As we continue our rapid growth, we value data-driven insights, and your contributions will play a pivotal role in our trajectory. Join us in shaping the future of OpenAI!

In this role, you will:

  • Design, build and manage our data pipelines, ensuring all user event data is seamlessly integrated into our data warehouse.

  • Develop canonical datasets to track key product metrics including user growth, engagement, and revenue.

  • Work collaboratively with various teams, including, Infrastructure, Data Science, Product, Marketing, Finance, and Research to understand their data needs and provide solutions.

  • Implement robust and fault-tolerant systems for data ingestion and processing.

  • Participate in data architecture and engineering decisions, bringing your strong experience and knowledge to bear.

  • Ensure the security, integrity, and compliance of data according to industry and company standards.

You might thrive in this role if you:

  • Have 3+ years of experience as a data engineer and 8+ years of any software engineering experience(including data engineering).

  • Proficiency in at least one programming language commonly used within Data Engineering, such as Python, Scala, or Java.

  • Experience with distributed processing technologies and frameworks, such as Hadoop, Flink and distributed storage systems (e.g., HDFS, S3).

  • Expertise with any of ETL schedulers such as Airflow, Dagster, Prefect or similar frameworks.

  • Solid understanding of Spark and ability to write, debug and optimize Spark code. 

This role is exclusively based in our San Francisco HQ. We offer relocation assistance to new employees.

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.

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

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