About the position
We're looking for a Backend Software Engineer to help architect and scale the infrastructure that powers our knowledge systems. This is a deeply technical and highly cross-functional role where you'll build robust systems and backend services that serve as the foundation for how knowledge is created, accessed, and applied across OpenAI. The Knowledge Innovation team is scaling OpenAI with OpenAI. We are building a model powered knowledge system that evolves and learns as our products, systems and customers evolve. We leverage our state of the art models, technologies, and products (some external, some still in the lab) to assist or completely automate robust operations supporting both internal and external customers. We support OpenAI customers and internal partners globally, powering systems from customer support to integrity to product insights. We are a self-contained multi-disciplinary team, who enjoy a lightning fast feedback loop with customers at scale, some of whom sit just a few pods away. We iterate fast, and engineer for reliable long-term impact. We're constantly looking for the similarities and patterns in different types of work, and focus on building simple primitives, to apply world class knowledge to many domains. The work of this team exemplifies use of OpenAI technologies. We build systems so everyone can see the leverage that is possible with well designed AI-based implementations. We do this by working through internal use cases focused on Customers (specifically knowledge systems, automation systems, and automated agent systems) to prove impact, then we scale.
Responsibilities
- Design, build, and maintain backend services and APIs to support intelligent automation and knowledge systems
- Integrate and structure data across internal platforms, transforming it into formats optimized for use by downstream systems and AI workflows
- Collaborate closely with product, research, and engineering teams to integrate OpenAI models into high-leverage workflows
- Own the full development lifecycle of new backend systems and internal platform capabilities
- Build with scale and maintainability in mind, while rapidly iterating on new ideas
Requirements
- 4+ years of backend engineering experience at product-driven companies (excluding internships)
- Proficiency in backend technologies. Our tech stack includes Python, FastAPI, and Postgres
- Experience designing and scaling distributed systems, APIs, or data processing pipelines
- A pragmatic mindset. You're comfortable shipping iteratively while building toward a long-term vision
- An interest in structured knowledge representation, internal search, agent infrastructure, or systems that evolve over time
Nice-to-haves
- Curiosity about AI/ML and excitement to work alongside world-class research and product teams (hands-on experience is a bonus, not a must)
