Software Engineer, ChatGPT Shopping

Full Stack Engineer · Senior · Full Time

San FranciscoUSD 230k – 385k1mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

Join OpenAI's ChatGPT Shopping team as a full stack product engineer to build next-generation consumer AI experiences. You'll design end-to-end product features combining advanced language models, multimodal AI capabilities, and intuitive interfaces for millions of users. This role requires strong full stack development expertise with proven experience shipping consumer products rapidly while maintaining engineering excellence.

Responsibilities

  • End-to-End Product Experience Design: Design and architect complete product experiences across web services, APIs, and modern frontend applications that seamlessly integrate conversational AI, visual understanding, and commerce capabilities into intuitive consumer interfaces.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with product managers, designers, researchers, and AI/ML model teams to rapidly prototype, validate, and launch new AI-native product experiences while maintaining tight feedback loops and iterating based on user data.
  • Frontend Interface Development: Build performant, accessible, and visually refined interfaces using modern frontend technologies that distill complex AI capabilities into simple, delightful user interactions across multimodal content including text, images, and interactive UI components.
  • Scalable Backend Systems: Develop and maintain robust backend services and APIs that power real-time, personalized product experiences at scale, handling distributed systems architecture and ensuring reliability for millions of concurrent users.
  • Data-Driven Product Iteration: Implement and monitor product analytics, A/B testing frameworks, and experimentation systems to validate hypotheses, measure feature impact, and drive continuous improvement through quantitative user feedback and product metrics.
  • Technical Leadership and Standards: Help define engineering standards, establish architectural patterns, and shape technical direction for a rapidly growing product area, mentoring team members and ensuring code quality and system reliability.
  • Multimodal AI Integration: Work with cutting-edge multimodal AI systems to integrate text processing, image understanding, and other advanced capabilities into product workflows, staying current with frontier AI capabilities and model advancements.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Full Stack Development Proficiency

    Demonstrated expertise across frontend, backend, and infrastructure layers with ability to design and implement complete systems from user interface through data layer and deployment.

  • Modern Frontend Technologies

    Production-level experience with React, TypeScript, Next.js, or equivalent modern frameworks for building interactive, performant web applications.

  • Backend Systems Development

    Strong experience building scalable backend services using Python, Go, Node.js, Rust, or comparable languages with understanding of system design principles and API architecture.

  • Distributed Systems and Cloud Infrastructure

    Working knowledge of distributed systems patterns, microservices architecture, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), containerization, and infrastructure as code.

  • APIs and Integration

    Experience designing and implementing robust REST APIs or GraphQL endpoints, integrating third-party services, and building scalable data pipelines.

Education

  • Computer Science Foundation

    Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent demonstrable technical education and practical engineering experience.

Experience

  • Consumer Product Development

    Track record of shipping consumer-facing applications end-to-end, from initial concept through production, with evidence of successful feature launches impacting millions of users.

  • High-Velocity Product Shipping

    Proven ability to move rapidly from idea to production while maintaining code quality, reliability, and system performance standards in fast-paced environments.

  • Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

    Experience working effectively with product managers, designers, researchers, and other engineering disciplines, translating business requirements into technical architecture.

  • Interactive User Interface Development

    Demonstrated excellence building highly interactive, polished consumer products with attention to user experience detail, performance optimization, and accessibility.

Skills

Required

  • Full Stack Web Development

    End-to-end capability building modern web applications with proficiency in both frontend frameworks and backend service architecture.

  • TypeScript

    Strong typing system expertise for building scalable, maintainable frontend and backend applications with type safety.

  • React

    Production experience with React framework for building component-based, interactive user interfaces with state management and performance optimization.

  • Python or Backend Languages

    Proficiency in Python, Go, Node.js, Rust, or similar for building scalable backend services and APIs.

  • System Design Thinking

    Ability to architect scalable systems considering performance, reliability, and maintainability across multiple layers of application stack.

  • Product Engineering Mindset

    Combining technical excellence with user-centric product thinking, balancing engineering rigor with shipping velocity.

Preferred

  • Next.js

    Nice to have

    Experience with Next.js framework for fullstack web applications enabling rapid development of server-rendered and static applications.

  • AI and Machine Learning Products

    Nice to have

    Background integrating machine learning models into consumer products, understanding model outputs, latency considerations, and user experience implications.

  • Personalization and Recommendation Systems

    Nice to have

    Experience building features that adapt to individual users including personalization engines, recommendation algorithms, or user preference systems.

  • Multimodal Systems

    Nice to have

    Familiarity with systems processing multiple data modalities (text, images, audio, etc.) and understanding challenges in multimodal product development.

  • Search and Discovery

    Nice to have

    Background with search infrastructure, discovery systems, or information retrieval that powers product recommendation and content surfacing.

  • Cloud Infrastructure

    Nice to have

    Hands-on experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure including containerization, serverless architectures, and infrastructure automation.

  • Product Analytics and Experimentation

    Nice to have

    Experience implementing analytics pipelines, A/B testing frameworks, and data-driven decision making to validate product hypotheses.

Tech stack

Languages

TypeScriptPythonJavaScriptGo or Rust

Frameworks

ReactNext.jsFastAPI or DjangoNode.js

Databases

PostgreSQLRedisVector Databases

Tools

Git and GitHubDockerKubernetesAWS or Cloud PlatformMonitoring and Observability Tools

Other

REST APIsWebSocketsGraphQLMultimodal AI IntegrationPrompt Engineering

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 230,000 – 385,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Cutting-Edge AI Research Access

    Direct exposure to frontier AI models and research, including latest versions of GPT and multimodal capabilities before public release, enabling you to build with the most advanced technology available.

  • High-Impact User Scale

    Engineer products impacting millions of users globally through ChatGPT, one of the fastest-growing consumer applications, with immediate feedback and measurable product impact.

  • World-Class Team

    Collaborate with exceptional researchers, engineers, and product thinkers at OpenAI, learning from leading AI researchers and industry veterans.

  • Rapid Innovation Velocity

    Work in a fast-moving environment where ideas move from concept to production quickly, enabling frequent shipping and iteration on customer feedback.

  • Technical Leadership Opportunities

    Influence architectural decisions and technical direction for a growing product area, establishing engineering standards and mentoring team members.

  • Mission-Driven Work

    Contribute to ensuring AI benefits all of humanity through building consumer experiences that make powerful AI accessible and intuitive for everyday users.

  • Comprehensive Health Coverage

    Medical, dental, and vision insurance with competitive coverage ensuring comprehensive healthcare benefits for you and your family.

  • Competitive Equity Compensation

    Significant equity grants providing ownership stake in OpenAI and participation in company growth.

  • Professional Development

    Learning budget, conference attendance, and internal knowledge sharing to keep current with evolving AI and software engineering practices.

  • San Francisco Bay Area Location

    Access to world's leading technology hub with thriving startup ecosystem, technical community events, and talent network.

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Initial Screening

    Resume review and recruiter phone screen to assess background, experience with consumer products, full stack capabilities, and cultural fit with OpenAI's mission and values.

  2. 02

    Technical Phone Interview

    Preliminary technical conversation covering system design fundamentals, technical depth across frontend and backend, and discussion of past product engineering experience.

  3. 03

    Coding Assessment

    Technical evaluation including frontend and backend coding problems assessing proficiency with core technologies (TypeScript/JavaScript, Python), problem-solving approach, and code quality.

  4. 04

    System Design Interview

    In-depth discussion designing scalable systems similar to ChatGPT shopping experiences, covering architecture decisions, trade-offs, real-time considerations, and multimodal systems thinking.

  5. 05

    Product Engineering Interview

    Discussion of past product experiences, how you balance shipping velocity with engineering quality, collaboration across disciplines, and ability to move from ambiguous requirements to shipped features.

  6. 06

    AI and ML Context Interview

    Conversation exploring familiarity with AI capabilities, how you think about integrating advanced models into products, understanding model limitations, and building intuitive interfaces around complex technology.

  7. 07

    Leadership and Culture Fit

    Final round with engineering leadership assessing communication style, collaboration approach, technical judgment, ownership mentality, and alignment with OpenAI's vision of beneficial AI.

Full posting

Original listing.

About the Team

ChatGPT is evolving from answering questions to becoming a deeply personalized assistant that helps people discover, create, and make decisions across everyday life. We're building new multimodal product experiences that combine language, images, personalization, and interactive interfaces to help millions of users accomplish tasks in entirely new ways.

This team sits at the intersection of AI research, product engineering, design, and consumer experiences. We move quickly, ship frequently, and work on products that define how people interact with AI every day.

About the Role

We're looking for exceptional full stack product engineers who love building polished consumer experiences from the ground up.

You'll work across frontend, backend, AI-powered workflows, and rich interactive interfaces to create new product experiences that blend conversation, visual understanding, personalization, and commerce. You'll collaborate closely with designers, researchers, product managers, and model teams to rapidly prototype, launch, and iterate on experiences used by millions of people.

This is an opportunity to help invent entirely new interaction paradigms—not just build traditional web applications.

In This Role, You Will

  • Design and build end-to-end product experiences across web services, APIs, and modern frontend applications.

  • Partner closely with product, design, and research to rapidly prototype and launch new AI-native experiences.

  • Build intuitive, performant interfaces that make advanced AI capabilities feel simple and delightful.

  • Develop scalable backend systems that power personalized, real-time product experiences.

  • Work with multimodal capabilities including text, images, and interactive UI components.

  • Iterate quickly using user feedback, experimentation, and product metrics.

  • Help define engineering standards, architecture, and technical direction for a fast-growing product area.

You Might Thrive If You

  • Have significant experience building consumer-facing products end to end.

  • Are comfortable moving across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and product architecture.

  • Care deeply about craft, user experience, and product quality.

  • Enjoy ambiguity and are energized by taking ideas from zero to one.

  • Think like both an engineer and a product builder.

  • Have strong systems thinking while maintaining exceptional attention to detail.

  • Communicate well across engineering, design, product, and research teams.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Strong experience with modern frontend technologies (React, TypeScript, Next.js, or similar).

  • Experience building scalable backend services using Python, Go, Node.js, Rust, or comparable technologies.

  • Familiarity with distributed systems, APIs, and cloud infrastructure.

  • Experience building highly interactive consumer products.

  • Background working with AI, machine learning products, search, recommendations, personalization, or multimodal systems is a plus.

  • A track record of shipping products quickly while maintaining engineering quality.

What Success Looks Like

Successful engineers on this team combine strong technical execution with excellent product judgment. They move fluidly between prototyping and production systems, collaborate effectively across disciplines, and consistently deliver experiences that feel intuitive, elegant, and magical to users.

They are excited by fast iteration, comfortable making decisions with imperfect information, and motivated by building products that redefine how people use AI every day.

Why OpenAI

At OpenAI, you'll work alongside some of the world's best researchers, engineers, designers, and product thinkers to build AI that benefits everyone. We value curiosity, ownership, humility, and a bias toward shipping impactful products.

If you're excited about inventing new consumer experiences powered by frontier AI—and want to help shape the future of how millions of people interact with technology—we'd love to hear from you.

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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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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