Stock Yard in Washington

About the Team Join the engineering teams that bring OpenAI’s ideas safely to the world! The Applied Engineering team works across research, engineering, product, and design to bring OpenAI’s technology to consumers and businesses. We seek to learn from deployment and distribute the benefits of AI, while ensuring that this powerful tool is used responsibly and safely. Safety is more important to us than unfettered growth. About the Role We’re seeking Software Engineers who can solve complex, high-impact problems across our stack. In this role, you’ll join a nimble team driving the deployment of OpenAI’s technology into new environments and infrastructure that power critical missions in the public sector. You’ll work cross-functionally with product, security, and compliance teams to build the functionality needed to deliver a scalable, reliable platform. You’ll also partner directly with customers to design and build new products and features that create real-world impact. From launching net-new capabilities to optimizing how we serve inference in unique, high-stakes environments, this role offers both breadth and technical depth—giving you the opportunity to shape the future of OpenAI’s technology where it matters most. This role is based in Washington D.C., San Francisco, CA or Seattle, WA. Occasional travel to customer sites is required for this role. In this role, you will: Own the development of new customer-facing ChatGPT and OpenAI API features end-to-end, both on-premises and in the cloud, for our public sector customers. Partner and directly embed with teams across the business, including engineering, security, and compliance, to enable our products to work within the unique constraints of new environments. Talk to users to understand their problems and design solutions to address them Work with the research team to get relevant feedback and iterate on their latest models, developing solutions specific for public sector customers at both the model & data

About the team The OpenAI for Government team is a dynamic, mission-driven group leveraging frontier AI to transform how governments achieve their missions. Our team works to empower public servants with secure, compliant AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Gov) and mission-aligned deployments that meet government technical requirements with strong reliability and safety. About the role Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) lead complex deployments of frontier models in production. You will embed with our most strategic government and public sector customers—where model performance matters, delivery is urgent, and ambiguity is the default. You’ll map their problems, structure delivery, and ship fast. This includes scoping, sequencing, and building full-stack solutions that create measurable value, while driving clarity across internal and external teams. You will work directly with defense, intelligence, and federal stakeholders as their technical thought partner, guiding adoption, maximizing mission impact, and ensuring successful deployments at scale. Along the way, you’ll identify reusable patterns, codify best practices, and share field signal that influences OpenAI’s roadmap. This role is based in Washington DC, Seattle or San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. We offer relocation assistance. Travel up to 50% is required, including on-site work with customers. In this role you will Own technical delivery across multiple government deployments, from first prototype to stable production. Deeply embed with public sector customers to design and build novel applications powered by OpenAI models. Enable successful deployments across customer environments by delivering observable systems spanning infrastructure through applications. Prototype and build full-stack systems using Python, JavaScript, or comparable stacks that deliver real mission impact. Proactively guide customers on maximizing business and operational value from