Senior Data Engineer, Core Experimentation

Data Engineer · Senior · Full Time

SeattleUSD 293k – 325k3mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

OpenAI is seeking a Senior Data Engineer for its Core Experimentation team to design and manage critical data pipelines that power product development, analytics, and decision-making across the organization. The ideal candidate will build robust data infrastructure, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and contribute to OpenAI's mission of developing responsible AI technologies.

Responsibilities

  • Data Pipeline Design: Design, build, and manage comprehensive data pipelines to seamlessly integrate user event data into the company's data warehouse.
  • Metrics Development: Develop canonical datasets to track critical product metrics including user growth, engagement, and revenue generation.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Infrastructure, Data Science, Product, Marketing, Finance, and Research teams to understand and address their data requirements.
  • System Reliability: Implement robust, fault-tolerant systems for data ingestion and processing to ensure high-performance data infrastructure.
  • Data Governance: Ensure data security, integrity, and compliance with industry and company standards throughout the data ecosystem.
  • Architectural Leadership: Participate in strategic data architecture and engineering decisions, bringing extensive experience and technical expertise.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Programming Languages

    Proficiency in at least one data engineering programming language (Python, Scala, or Java)

  • Distributed Processing

    Expertise with distributed processing technologies like Hadoop, Flink, and distributed storage systems (HDFS, S3)

  • ETL Frameworks

    Experience with ETL schedulers such as Airflow, Dagster, Prefect, or similar workflow management tools

  • Apache Spark

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

Education

  • Academic Background

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

Experience

  • Professional Experience

    3+ years of dedicated data engineering experience and 8+ years of overall software engineering experience

  • Complex Data Infrastructure

    Proven track record of designing and managing scalable, reliable data pipelines in high-growth technology environments

Skills

Required

  • Distributed Computing

    Strong skills in distributed system design and large-scale data processing

  • Data Pipeline Architecture

    Expert-level understanding of end-to-end data pipeline development and management

  • System Reliability

    Ability to design fault-tolerant and scalable data infrastructure

Preferred

  • Machine Learning Infrastructure

    Nice to have

    Experience with data pipelines supporting machine learning and AI model development

  • Cloud Platforms

    Nice to have

    Familiarity with cloud data services and infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure)

Tech stack

Languages

PythonScalaJava

Frameworks

Apache SparkAirflowDagster

Databases

HDFSAmazon S3

Tools

HadoopPrefect

Other

ETL Processes

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 293,000 – 325,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Equity Compensation

    Stock options providing potential additional financial upside

  • Hybrid Work Model

    Flexible work arrangement with in-person collaboration opportunities in Bellevue

  • Cutting-Edge Technology

    Work on advanced AI technologies at the forefront of machine learning and artificial intelligence

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Initial Screening

    Preliminary review of application and resume by hiring team

  2. 02

    Technical Phone Screen

    Detailed discussion of technical skills, experience, and data engineering expertise

  3. 03

    Technical Assessment

    Hands-on coding challenge and system design evaluation focused on data pipeline architecture

  4. 04

    Onsite Interviews

    Multiple rounds of in-depth technical and collaborative interviews with team members

  5. 05

    Final Panel

    Comprehensive review with senior leadership to assess overall fit and potential impact

Full posting

Original listing.

About the Team

The Statsig team at OpenAI builds and operates the experimentation platform that powers product development, measurement, and decision-making across the company. We partner closely with product, engineering, and infrastructure teams to ensure experiments are trustworthy, statistically rigorous, and scalable to the needs of frontier AI products.

Our mission is to help teams make better decisions through reliable experimentation. We care deeply about statistical correctness, pragmatic solutions, and building systems that researchers and engineers can trust at massive scale. The team operates at the intersection of experimentation methodology, data infrastructure, causal inference, and product analytics.

We are looking for experienced experimentation experts who want to shape the future of experimentation in the AI era.

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 based in Bellevue. We use a hybrid work model and value in-person collaboration for technical design, iteration, and cross-functional partnership.

Compensation Range: $293K - $325K USD

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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