Software Engineer, Quality & Developer Tools | Consumer Devices
Software Engineer, Quality & Developer Tools · Senior · Full Time
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Role
What you'll do.
Join OpenAI's Systems Integration team as a Software Engineer focused on Quality and Developer Tools for consumer devices. You'll design and own test frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, hardware-in-the-loop labs, and automation systems that validate device software at scale. This role requires deep expertise in software quality, test automation, developer tooling, and hardware-software integration, with strong proficiency in Python, C, C++, or Rust and Linux fundamentals.
Responsibilities
- Test Infrastructure & Frameworks Design: Design, implement, and maintain unified test frameworks spanning unit, integration, system, and end-to-end testing for device software with reproducible runs and integrations with GitHub, Linear, and Slack to ensure comprehensive test coverage and reliability.
- CI/CD Integration & Release Pipeline Management: Integrate test suites with Buildkite CI/CD infrastructure, establish and enforce promotion criteria for staging and production environments, automate regression detection and filing, and publish traceable artifacts with comprehensive release notes and deployment tracking.
- Hardware-in-the-Loop Lab Design & Orchestration: Plan, architect, and bring up physical test infrastructure including racks, power systems, networking architecture, and orchestration platforms for automated device testing with capabilities for firmware flashing, device provisioning, and comprehensive telemetry capture.
- Automation & Developer Tooling Development: Develop robust tools and automation systems for API and firmware validation, test result triage and analysis, comprehensive log capture and aggregation, replayable bug report generation, and enhanced debugging workflows that measurably improve engineering velocity and efficiency.
- Quality Signals, Metrics & Flake Management: Build operational dashboards and alerting systems for test pass rates, platform stability, and release readiness metrics; implement flaky test detection and quarantine mechanisms; drive root-cause analysis with engineering owners; and maintain comprehensive delivery metrics protecting release health.
- Vendor Enablement & QA Operations: Create well-documented procedures, tooling, and workflows enabling QA vendor technicians to execute repeatable testing processes independently; review vendor reports and quality metrics; maintain organized queues for hardware rig maintenance, repairs, and equipment lifecycle management.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration & Integration: Partner closely with embedded software and systems engineering teams on testability improvements and design considerations; collaborate with release infrastructure engineers on CI/CD pipeline optimization, secure code signing, staged rollout strategies, and rollback/forward procedures.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Software Quality & Test Automation Expertise
Demonstrated deep experience building and scaling software quality systems, comprehensive test automation frameworks, and validation infrastructure for hardware products shipped at production scale with millions of users.
Programming Language Proficiency
Strong proficiency in Python, C, C++, or Rust with ability to write clean, maintainable, and performant code; experience with multiple languages for building polyglot test and automation systems.
Linux Systems Knowledge
Strong Linux fundamentals including process management, networking protocols and troubleshooting, storage systems, device drivers, udev configuration, systemd service management, and kernel-level debugging capabilities.
CI/CD Pipeline Architecture
Proven experience designing, implementing, and operating CI/CD pipelines; expertise with artifact management systems, dependency resolution, reproducible build environments, and isolated test execution across multiple deployment stages.
Hardware-in-the-Loop Systems
Documented success designing, building, and operating hardware-in-the-loop labs and device orchestration systems at significant scale; experience with device flashing, firmware provisioning, JTAG/serial debugging, and multi-device test coordination.
Test Reliability Techniques
Fluency with advanced test reliability practices including failure triage methodology, flaky test detection algorithms, quarantine and retry strategies, signal-quality guardrails, statistical analysis of test results, and flake root-cause analysis.
Multi-Layer Debugging Skills
Strong debugging expertise across software applications, firmware, hardware devices, release infrastructure, and deployment systems; ability to trace issues across multiple abstraction layers and coordinate with teams across specializations.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field
Formal education in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent discipline; or equivalent professional experience demonstrating equivalent technical depth and breadth.
Experience
Software Quality Leadership
Minimum 5-7 years building and owning quality and testing systems for consumer hardware or embedded device products, preferably with experience shipping products at OpenAI scale and complexity.
Infrastructure & Platform Engineering
Significant experience building developer-facing platforms, internal tools, and infrastructure systems that improve engineering productivity and reduce release cycle times across large engineering organizations.
Vendor Management & Operations
Experience coordinating with external QA vendors, contract manufacturers, or third-party testing organizations; creating operational procedures and tooling for distributed QA execution and quality oversight.
Release & Deployment Processes
Hands-on experience managing or improving complex release processes including staged rollouts, canary deployments, rollback strategies, and high-stakes production releases with minimal downtime.
Skills
Required
Python Programming
Production-grade Python development for building test frameworks, automation scripts, and developer tools; expertise with testing libraries, concurrency patterns, and integration with external systems.
CI/CD Pipeline Tools
Hands-on experience with Buildkite or similar CI/CD platforms; GitHub Actions or equivalent; artifact repositories; and configuration-as-code approaches for reproducible pipeline definitions.
Test Framework Design
Ability to architect comprehensive test frameworks supporting multiple testing levels (unit, integration, system, E2E); test organization patterns; parametrization; dependency management; and result reporting.
Linux System Administration
Proficiency in Linux administration including shell scripting, system configuration, troubleshooting, performance analysis, and security hardening; comfort with kernel concepts and device-level operations.
Distributed Systems Testing
Experience testing and validating systems with multiple components; understanding of timing issues, race conditions, eventual consistency, and strategies for deterministic testing in non-deterministic environments.
Automation & Orchestration
Experience with infrastructure automation, container orchestration concepts, or hardware/device orchestration platforms; IaC principles; and scaling automation across hundreds or thousands of test machines.
Debugging & Diagnostics
Advanced debugging techniques including log analysis, performance profiling, system tracing tools, debuggers, and ability to systematically isolate failures in complex systems.
Release Management
Familiarity with release processes including version management, changelogs, staged rollouts, canary deployments, feature flags, rollback procedures, and release communication workflows.
Preferred
C/C++ or Rust
Nice to haveProficiency in systems programming languages for firmware validation, low-level device interactions, and performance-critical automation components; experience with memory management and unsafe operations.
Hardware Debugging Protocols
Nice to haveExperience with JTAG, serial/UART communication, firmware flashing utilities, bootloader debugging, and hardware-level diagnostics for embedded device validation and troubleshooting.
Kubernetes or Container Orchestration
Nice to haveExperience deploying and managing Kubernetes clusters for test execution; container-based testing infrastructure; or similar orchestration platforms at scale.
Observability & Monitoring
Nice to haveExperience building dashboards, alerting systems, and observability solutions; familiarity with metrics collection, logging aggregation, and time-series data analysis for quality and release signals.
Hardware Product Development
Nice to haveBackground working on consumer hardware or IoT product development; understanding of hardware design constraints, manufacturing processes, supply chain testing, and device lifecycle management.
API Testing & Validation
Nice to haveExperience designing and implementing comprehensive API testing suites; contract testing; and integration testing frameworks for complex device communication protocols.
Version Control & Collaboration Tools
Nice to haveAdvanced proficiency with GitHub workflows, code review practices, branching strategies, CI/CD integration with VCS, and cross-team collaboration through issue tracking and documentation systems.
Machine Learning Model Testing
Nice to haveExperience testing machine learning models or AI-driven systems; understanding of model validation, inference testing, and quality metrics for AI applications (valuable in OpenAI context).
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·USD 293,000 – 325,000
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Equity & Stock Options
Competitive equity packages with stock options, enabling participation in company growth and long-term value creation as a core member of OpenAI's engineering team.
Comprehensive Health Insurance
Medical, dental, and vision coverage with competitive premiums and comprehensive benefits for employees and eligible dependents.
Retirement Planning
401(k) retirement savings plan with employer matching contributions to support long-term financial security and retirement readiness.
Flexible Work Arrangement
Hybrid work model with four days per week in the San Francisco office and one remote day, balancing collaboration with flexibility; flexible scheduling accommodations available.
Relocation Assistance
Comprehensive relocation support package for new employees relocating to San Francisco Bay Area, including moving expenses and assistance navigating local transition.
Professional Development
Learning and development opportunities, conference attendance budgets, technical training programs, and career growth pathways within OpenAI's rapidly expanding organization.
Mental Health & Wellness
Access to mental health resources, wellness programs, fitness benefits, and employee assistance programs supporting holistic well-being.
Paid Time Off
Generous paid vacation days, sick leave, and company holidays enabling work-life balance and recovery time throughout the year.
Innovation & Impact
Opportunity to work on cutting-edge artificial intelligence infrastructure and consumer device projects with global impact; access to OpenAI's research and products.
Full posting
Original listing.
About the Team
The Systems Integration team is responsible for building the infrastructure, tooling, and validation systems that ensure our device software is reliable, testable, and ready to ship. We design and maintain automated test frameworks, hardware-in-the-loop labs, and release pipelines that keep quality signals trustworthy and enable rapid, safe product launches. Our work spans developer tools, automation, systems integration, and cross-team collaboration to ensure every release meets the highest standards.
About the Role
As a Software Engineer, Quality and Developer Tools, you will build and own the systems that validate our device software—from test frameworks and regression infrastructure to hardware-in-the-loop labs and release gates. You’ll design the tooling and automation that keep quality signals trustworthy, integrate them into CI/CD, and make it easy for engineers and QA vendor technicians to execute reliable, repeatable workflows.
We’re looking for engineers with deep experience in software quality, automation, developer tooling, and hardware-software integration who thrive on building scalable, reliable systems for validation and release readiness.
This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of four days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.
In this role, you will:
Test infrastructure & frameworks: Design, implement, and maintain a unified test framework for device software across unit, integration, system, and end-to-end testing, with reproducible runs and integrations with GitHub, Linear, and Slack.
CI/CD integration & releases: Integrate test suites with Buildkite, enforce promotion criteria for staging and production, auto-file regressions, and publish traceable artifacts and release notes.
Hardware-in-the-loop lab design & orchestration: Plan and bring up racks, power and networking systems, and orchestration for device testing; support automated flashing, provisioning, and telemetry capture.
Automation and developer tooling: Develop tools for API and firmware validation, result triage, log capture, replayable bug reports, and workflows that improve engineering velocity and debugging efficiency.
Quality signals, metrics, and flake control: Build dashboards and alerts for pass rates, stability, and release readiness; detect and quarantine flaky tests; drive root-cause analysis with owners; and track delivery metrics that protect release health.
Vendor enablement: Create clear procedures and tooling that allow QA vendor technicians to execute repeatable processes, review their reports, and maintain a queue of rig maintenance and repairs.
Cross-team collaboration: Partner with embedded and systems software teams on testability, and with release infrastructure engineers on pipelines, signing, staged rollouts, and rollback/forward strategies.
You might thrive in this role if you:
Have deep experience building software quality, test automation, or developer tooling systems for hardware products shipped at scale.
Are proficient in Python, C, C++, or Rust, and have strong Linux fundamentals, including processes, networking, storage, and udev/systemd.
Have experience building CI/CD pipelines, artifact management systems, and reproducible or isolated test environments.
Have demonstrated success designing and operating hardware-in-the-loop labs and device orchestration systems at scale.
Are fluent with test reliability techniques such as failure triage, flake detection and quarantine, and signal-quality guardrails.
Have strong debugging skills across software, firmware, devices, and release infrastructure.
Work well across teams and enjoy improving the systems that make engineering and release processes more scalable and reliable.
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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