Software Engineer, Integrity Foundations

Backend Engineer · Mid · Full Time

San FranciscoUSD 230k – 385k25mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

OpenAI's Applied Foundations team is seeking a Software Engineer for Integrity Foundations to develop robust defense systems against adversarial threats including financial fraud, scaled attacks, and platform abuse. This role requires 3+ years of backend engineering experience with production systems and focuses on building secure, scalable infrastructure to maintain platform integrity while ensuring AI safety in production environments.

Responsibilities

  • Abuse Detection Systems Development: Design and implement sophisticated systems to detect and prevent financial fraud, botting, scripting, and other forms of platform abuse using machine learning and rule-based approaches
  • Cross-Functional Security Collaboration: Partner with security, product, and data science teams to architect comprehensive defense solutions that protect against adversarial attacks while maintaining optimal user experience
  • Incident Response and Infrastructure Building: Lead rapid response efforts during active security incidents, analyze attack patterns, and develop new tooling and infrastructure to address root causes and prevent future threats
  • Production Backend Services Maintenance: Build, deploy, and maintain highly available backend services and data pipelines that process millions of requests while ensuring system reliability and performance
  • AI Safety Implementation: Implement and maintain safety measures for AI systems in production environments, ensuring responsible deployment and usage of OpenAI's models and platforms
  • Security Tooling Development: Create custom tools and automation solutions to accelerate security workflows, threat detection, and response capabilities when existing solutions are insufficient

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Backend Engineering Expertise

    Strong proficiency in building and maintaining production-grade backend services, APIs, and distributed systems with focus on security and scalability

  • Data Pipeline Experience

    Hands-on experience designing, implementing, and maintaining data pipelines for large-scale data processing, ETL operations, and real-time analytics

  • Cloud Infrastructure Knowledge

    Experience with cloud platforms (preferably Azure), containerization with Kubernetes, and infrastructure as code tools like Terraform

  • Security and Fraud Detection Systems

    Understanding of security principles, fraud detection methodologies, and experience building systems that defend against adversarial attacks and abuse

  • Database Management

    Proficiency with relational databases, particularly PostgreSQL, including query optimization, schema design, and performance tuning

Education

  • Computer Science or Related Field

    Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience in software development and system design

Experience

  • Professional Software Engineering

    Minimum 3 years of professional software development experience with demonstrated ability to deliver production systems

  • Production System Operations

    Experience setting up, deploying, and maintaining backend services in production environments with high availability requirements

  • End-to-End Problem Ownership

    Track record of owning complex problems from conception to deployment, including willingness to acquire new knowledge and skills as needed

Skills

Required

  • Python Programming

    Advanced proficiency in Python for backend development, data processing, and system automation

  • Distributed Systems Design

    Strong understanding of distributed system principles, microservices architecture, and scalability patterns

  • Security Engineering

    Knowledge of cybersecurity principles, threat modeling, and building secure software systems

  • Problem-Solving and Analysis

    Strong analytical skills to identify complex technical problems and develop effective solutions

  • Self-Direction and Initiative

    Ability to work independently, prioritize tasks, and drive projects to completion with minimal supervision

Preferred

  • Machine Learning for Security

    Nice to have

    Experience applying ML techniques to fraud detection, anomaly detection, or security use cases

  • Streaming Data Processing

    Nice to have

    Familiarity with Apache Kafka, real-time data processing, and event-driven architectures

  • AI Safety and Ethics

    Nice to have

    Understanding of AI safety principles, responsible AI deployment, and ethical considerations in AI systems

  • Incident Response Experience

    Nice to have

    Background in security incident response, forensic analysis, and crisis management

  • DevOps and Infrastructure

    Nice to have

    Experience with CI/CD pipelines, monitoring tools, and infrastructure automation

Tech stack

Languages

Python

Frameworks

Kubernetes

Databases

PostgreSQL

Tools

TerraformApache KafkaAzure

Other

Data PipelinesMonitoring & Observability Tools

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 230,000 – 385,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Equity Compensation

    Significant equity package with potential for substantial returns as OpenAI continues to grow and expand its market presence

  • Health Insurance

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

  • Professional Development

    Access to cutting-edge AI research, conferences, training programs, and continuous learning opportunities in the rapidly evolving AI field

  • Work-Life Balance

    Flexible work arrangements and generous time off policies to support employee well-being and productivity

  • Equal Opportunity Employment

    Commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity employment practices with accommodations for disabilities

  • Mission-Driven Work

    Opportunity to contribute to groundbreaking AI research and development that aims to benefit all of humanity

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Initial Application Review

    Technical resume screening focusing on backend engineering experience, security background, and cultural fit with OpenAI's mission

  2. 02

    Technical Phone Screen

    45-60 minute technical interview covering system design, Python programming, and security engineering concepts with live coding

  3. 03

    Technical Deep Dive

    In-depth technical interview focusing on distributed systems design, data pipeline architecture, and fraud detection system implementation

  4. 04

    System Design Interview

    Design a large-scale abuse detection system handling millions of requests, covering scalability, security, and real-time processing requirements

  5. 05

    Cultural and Mission Alignment

    Discussion of OpenAI's mission, AI safety principles, and assessment of candidate's alignment with responsible AI development values

  6. 06

    Final Interview Panel

    Final round with senior engineering leaders and cross-functional partners covering technical depth, leadership potential, and team collaboration skills

Full posting

Original listing.

About the Team

The Applied Foundations team at OpenAI is dedicated to ensuring that our cutting-edge technology is not only revolutionary but also secure from a myriad of adversarial threats. We strive to maintain the integrity of our platforms as they scale. 

The Applied Foundations team is at the front lines of defending against financial abuse, scaled attacks, and other forms of misuse that could undermine the user experience or harm our operational stability. Integrity Foundations provides the core building blocks and infrastructure for this work.

About the Role

At OpenAI, our mission is to advance AI in a way that is safe, reliable, and aligned with broad societal values. The applied foundations role is crucial for maintaining the trustworthiness of our platforms. You will be pivotal in developing robust defenses against a spectrum of adversarial behaviors that threaten our ecosystem.

In this role, you'll work with our entire engineering team to design and implement systems that detect and prevent abuse, promote user safety, and reduce risk across our platform. You'll be at the forefront of our efforts to ensure that the immense potential of AI is harnessed in a responsible and sustainable manner.

In this role, you will:

  • Develop and enhance systems to detect and prevent various forms of abuse including financial fraud, botting, and scripting.

  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to design solutions that protect against and mitigate adversarial attacks without compromising user experience.

  • Assist with response to active incidents on the platform and build new tooling and infrastructure that address the fundamental problems.

You might thrive in this role if you:

  • Have at least 3 years of professional software engineering experience.

  • Have experience setting up and maintaining production backend services and data pipelines.

  • Have a humble attitude, an eagerness to help your colleagues, and a desire to do whatever it takes to make the team succeed.

  • Are self-directed and enjoy figuring out the best way to solve a particular problem

  • Own problems end-to-end, and are willing to pick up whatever knowledge you're missing to get the job done.

  • Care about AI Safety in production environments and have the expertise to build software systems that defend against abuse.

  • Build tools to accelerate your own workflows, but only when off-the-shelf solutions would not do.

Our tech stack

  • Our infrastructure is built on Terraform, Kubernetes, Azure, Python, Postgres, and Kafka. While we value experience with these technologies, we are primarily looking for engineers with strong technical skills and the ability to quickly pick up new tools and frameworks.

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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