OpenAI

Engineering Manager, Distillation & Dectection Platform

OpenAI2 days ago
Location

San Francisco

Type

Full Time

Salary

USD 293,000 – 385,000

Level

Manager

Role

Engineering Manager

Posted

Mar 24, 2026

Full TimeManager

The role

Summary

OpenAI is seeking an experienced Engineering Manager to lead a critical team developing advanced detection and prevention systems for AI model misuse. The role focuses on building scalable software systems that protect frontier AI models by detecting potential risks, mitigating potential threats, and ensuring the integrity of AI technologies at a global scale.

What you'll do

Team Leadership: Lead a team of software engineers focused on developing detection and mitigation systems for frontier model misuse, with emphasis on model IP protection and emerging risk surfaces from autonomous agents.
Technical Strategy: Set and execute the technical roadmap, prioritizing, designing, shipping, iterating, and measuring impact of production systems and detection pipelines.
System Development: Build robust production systems including services, pipelines, tooling, instrumentation, and automation that can scale with frontier model usage.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner deeply with Research and Product teams to translate evolving model capabilities into concrete tests, signals, and scalable mitigations.
Engineering Excellence: Drive strong engineering fundamentals including system architecture, reliability, monitoring, performance, and operational excellence.
Team Growth: Recruit and develop an exceptional engineering team across backend, data systems, and applied ML engineering domains.

What we look for

Technical

System ArchitectureStrong technical judgment in distributed systems, data pipelines, observability, and operational reliability
Security BackgroundExperience in adversarial environments, abuse prevention, fraud detection, platform defense, or related security domains

Education

Advanced Technical DegreeBachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field preferred

Experience

Leadership ExperienceSignificant experience leading engineering teams and delivering production systems end-to-end
Cross-Functional CollaborationProven ability to partner with Research, Product, and Security teams to ship systems that materially reduce risk at scale

Skills

Required skills

System DesignAdvanced capability in designing scalable, reliable software systems
Team ManagementStrong leadership and team development skills
Technical CommunicationAbility to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to senior stakeholders

Nice to have

Model Extraction KnowledgeFamiliarity with model extraction, distillation, or adversarial evaluation techniques
High-Scale SystemsBackground in autonomy, real-time systems, or intelligence-adjacent technical domains

Compensation & benefits

Salary

USD 293,000 – 385,000 (annual)

Benefits

Competitive Compensation

Comprehensive salary package with equity options reflecting market-leading rates

Healthcare

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance

Professional Development

Opportunities for continuous learning, conference attendance, and skill enhancement

Cutting-Edge Technology

Work at the forefront of AI technology with access to groundbreaking research and development

Flexible Work Arrangements

Potential for flexible working hours and location

Interview process

  1. 1
    Initial Screening — Phone or video call with recruiting team to assess background and initial fit
  2. 2
    Technical Leadership Interview — In-depth discussion of engineering leadership experience, system design capabilities, and strategic thinking
  3. 3
    Team Fit Interview — Meetings with potential team members to evaluate collaboration and leadership style
  4. 4
    Technical Challenge — System design exercise focusing on AI model protection, detection strategies, and scalable architecture
  5. 5
    Final Executive Interview — Conversation with senior leadership to align on vision, approach, and strategic contributions
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OpenAI

OpenAI

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OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence research organization developing advanced AI models like GPT. Focused on ensuring AI benefits humanity, it creates tools for natural language processing and generative AI applications.

San Francisco, California, United StatesFounded 2015openai.com

Tech Stack

Languages
PythonGo
Frameworks
PyTorchTensorFlow
Databases
PostgreSQLMongoDB
Tools
KubernetesDocker
Other
MLOpsDistributed Systems

Interview Guides

5 guides available for OpenAI

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On this page

Engineering Manager, Distillation & Dectection Platform at OpenAI | Scale Engineer