Hardware Operations Engineer in San Francisco

About the Team OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops AI-native silicon and system-level solutions for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. Building on efforts like Jalapeño, the team is developing future generations of AI-native silicon and tightly integrated systems to power the next generation of frontier models. By co-designing chips, systems, tools, and methodologies, the team helps deliver faster, more efficient, and production-ready hardware for OpenAI’s supercomputing platform. About the Role We’re looking for a Product Manufacturing Engineer to drive manufacturing strategy and execution for next-generation AI hardware within the Silicon & Systems team, with a particular focus on PCBA manufacturing, assembly, process development, and production readiness. You will work closely with design engineering, systems engineering, operations, TPMs, contract manufacturers, suppliers, and other external partners to ensure new hardware products successfully transition from concept and prototype builds through NPI and high-volume production. You’ll own critical manufacturing initiatives, identify and resolve production risks, and help establish the processes and controls required to deliver complex hardware at scale. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. In this role, you will: Drive manufacturing and quality initiatives to ensure product success from concept and early development through NPI, production launch, and scale. Lead manufacturing process development for next-generation AI hardware systems, partnering closely with design engineering, systems engineering, operations, TPMs, suppliers, and manufacturing partners. Own PCBA manufacturing development and production readiness, including assembly processes, process validation, manufacturing test, rework, yield improvement, and successful transition into volume production. Establish NPI manufact

We are hiring a Security Software Engineer to design and implement the hardware-backed security foundations used across OpenAI’s device ecosystem. A central focus of this role is hardening the boundary between our policy systems and the HSMs that protect sensitive cryptographic keys. This boundary determines which operations may be performed, what may be signed, which policies must be satisfied, and how changes to trusted software and policy are authorized. You will develop security-critical software and firmware within, or immediately adjacent to, an HSM trust boundary. Depending on your background, this may include HSM trusted applications, firmware services, cryptographic mechanisms, device drivers, PKCS#11 components, secure-provisioning protocols, or signing-policy enforcement systems. This is a hands-on software-engineering role. You will be expected to design systems, write and review production code, debug across hardware and software boundaries, and carry projects from initial requirements through deployment. It is not an HSM administration, PKI operations, compliance, or architecture-only position. In This Role, You Will Design and implement security-critical software and firmware for HSMs, secure elements, trusted execution environments, and hardware roots of trust. Build and harden the policy-to-HSM boundary responsible for authorizing certificate issuance and cryptographic signing operations. Develop HSM trusted applications, firmware components, host interfaces, device drivers, SDKs, or cryptographic service integrations. Implement or extend cryptographic interfaces such as PKCS#11, OpenSSL providers or engines, platform key-storage APIs, or comparable hardware-security interfaces. Build firmware and software that cryptographically enforces key generation, provisioning, usage, rotation, recovery, and destruction policies. Design and implement HSM-backed certificate authority, code-signing, key-management, and device-identity systems. Develop end-to-end

About the Team OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops AI-native silicon and system-level solutions for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. Building on efforts like Jalapeño, the team is developing future generations of AI-native silicon and tightly integrated systems to power the next generation of frontier models. By co-designing chips, systems, tools, and methodologies, the team helps deliver faster, more efficient, and production-ready hardware for OpenAI’s supercomputing platform. About the Role We are seeking a Operations Program Manager (OPM) to serve as the single-threaded operational leader for new hardware introductions (NPI) and production ramps across OpenAI’s AI infrastructure systems. This role combines hands-on execution with strategic ownership. You will be responsible for defining the operating model, aligning cross-functional stakeholders, setting the critical path, making informed tradeoffs, escalating decisively, and ensuring hardware programs deliver on schedule, quality, cost, and scalability. Success in this role requires comfort operating in ambiguity, influencing without authority, and driving alignment across internal teams and external partners—while keeping eyes firmly on long-term system scalability and repeatability. In this role, you will: Strategic & Leadership Ownership Act as the single-threaded owner for operational readiness across NPI and ramp, accountable for outcomes from early bring-up through sustained production Translate OpenAI’s infrastructure strategy and engineering objectives into clear operating plans, execution priorities, and decision frameworks Drive alignment across Engineering, Operations, Strategic Sourcing, Finance, Capacity Planning, and Executive stakeholders by framing tradeoffs, risks, and recommendations Proactively identify inflection points where decisions or investments are required to protect long-term scale, reliability, or cost targets Influence operational strategy with manufacturing par

About the Team OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops AI-native silicon and system-level solutions for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. Building on efforts like Jalapeño, the team is developing future generations of AI-native silicon and tightly integrated systems to power the next generation of frontier models. By co-designing chips, systems, tools, and methodologies, the team helps deliver faster, more efficient, and production-ready hardware for OpenAI’s supercomputing platform. About the Role OpenAI's Hardware organization builds supercompute platforms from silicon and boards to full rack-scale systems to power advanced AI workloads. This role owns end-to-end quality for high-speed interconnect hardware across the product lifecycle: early design influence, supplier/contract manufacturer readiness, qualification, ramp, and fleet quality in lab and data center environments. You will be the quality lead for advanced interconnect components and assemblies, including high-speed copper cables, cable cartridges, patch panels, backplane/cable-backplane solutions, high-speed connectors, and related electro-mechanical interfaces. You will partner closely with electrical, mechanical, SI/PI, systems, reliability, operations, and external vendors to prevent escapes and drive rapid, data-driven containment and corrective action. In this role you will: Own quality for advanced interconnect components and assemblies: high-speed connectors, high-speed copper cables, cable cartridges (e.g., cable cassette style assemblies), patch panels & optics, and backplane/cable-backplane interconnect solutions. Drive quality-by-design: participate in design reviews, DFM/DFx, tolerance stacks, material and plating selections, connector mating strategy, strain relief, and assembly methods to reduce variation and field failures. Define and track quality and reliability metrics (DPPM, yield, escapes, RMA/FRACAS trends, Cpk/Ppk where applicable) for interconnects across NPI and m

About the Team OpenAI Consumer Devices is building the next generation of products that bring powerful AI into people’s everyday lives. Guided by OpenAI’s mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity, our team combines world-class researchers, engineers, designers, and operators who care deeply about creating useful, intuitive, and responsible technology. You’ll have the opportunity to work alongside exceptional people on ambitious, zero-to-one challenges at the intersection of hardware, software, and AI. This is a chance to help define an entirely new category of products—and shape how people experience AI in the future. The Systems Integration team is critical in this mission, turning complex hardware-software development into reliable product signals. Lab Operations is the physical backbone of that work: we build and maintain the device fleets, test environments, and hardware-in-the-loop labs that let teams test repeatably, understand failures, and ship with confidence. About the Role As a Lab Operations Manager, Systems Integration , you will own the day-to-day operation of a large-scale consumer device test lab. This is a hands-on operations leadership role: you’ll keep device fleets, test rigs, lab infrastructure, inventory, provisioning, maintenance, and logistics running smoothly so engineers and QA technicians have reliable environments for validation and release testing. We’re looking for someone who is highly organized, technically hands-on, comfortable with consumer electronics and lab equipment, and experienced operating complex physical test environments at scale. Because this is a new category of devices, you’ll have the opportunity to build the lab operating model early—shaping the systems, standards, and workflows that support products from prototype through launch. In this role, you will: Own device fleet and inventory: Manage configuration, deployment, tracking, lifecycle, and accurate asset records for a large fleet of consumer devices and test

About the Team Our Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and pushing towards AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world settings. Working across the entire model stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the constraints of physical systems to improve peoples’ lives. About the Role We're seeking talented Robotics Software Engineers to expand our robotics data collection and evaluation program. This highly technical role involves designing, implementing, and optimizing software solutions across diverse robotics hardware. You'll work closely and collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams; including software, hardware, research, and operations - to drive advancements in our robotic systems. This role is based in San Francisco, CA, and requires in-person 4 days a week. In this role, you will: Help develop and grow our data collection labs, owning the entire integration lifecycle, from identifying and sourcing new hardware to collaborating with mechanical and electrical engineers on setup, software integration, and operational deployment. Develop innovative robot control interfaces suited to a variety of morphologies, environments, and tasks. Collaborate closely with research and engineering teams to develop automation tools and machinery that facilitate the evaluation of advanced robotic policies. Lead the design and implementation of data collection, visualization, and quality control processes. You might thrive in this role if you: Have 5+ years of professional software engineering experience developing and shipping production-quality systems in robotics or hardware-integrated environments. Have extensive experience integrating and deploying industrial automation systems, off-the-shelf robotics platforms, or custom hardware into production environments. Bring hands-on experience delivering production-quality software

About Team Our Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and advancing toward AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world environments. Working across the full model and systems stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the physical constraints of real-world systems to improve people’s lives. About Role We are looking for an Operations Program Manager - Robotics Data Acquisition to own the day-to-day operating rhythm in our data collection facilities. You will work closely with operators, technicians, program managers, and engineers to keep rigs ready, campaigns moving, issues resolved, and performance improving. This is a hands-on operations role that requires you to be comfortable spending time on the floor, working through ambiguity, and using data to make the operation more reliable and efficient. This role is based in San Francisco, CA and requires in-person presence 5 days a week. In this role you will: Coordinate daily operations readiness across workstations, operators, materials. Track core operating metrics including utilization, cycle time, throughput, downtime, operator productivity, and data quality. Identify bottlenecks through workflow analysis, time studies, and capacity modeling, then drive practical fixes. Execute the rollout of new hardware, sensors, tools, and process changes with Engineering, Operations, Facilities, Supply Chain, and Safety. Identify equipment readiness issues and coordinate with technical support to keep workstations, and test equipment calibrated, configured, maintained, and ready for rollouts and evaluations. Lead root cause analysis for recurring operational issues and follow through on corrective actions. Provide operation input to create and maintain SOPs, work instructions, training materials, and process controls. Identify and flag resource constraints and manage issue escala

About the Team The OpenAI Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and pushing towards AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world settings. Working across the entire model stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the constraints of physical systems to improve peoples’ lives. About the Role OpenAI Robotics depends on high-quality real-world robot data from a large, live operational environment. That environment has many deployed workcells, changing configurations, and little tolerance for downtime. We are seeking a Field Engineer to help keep that environment running well. You will own the day-to-day technical health of robotic workcells used in ongoing data acquisition operations, diagnose and resolve failures across hardware and software, and build the practical tools, documentation, and support workflows that make operators and technicians more effective. The work is close to the floor, close to the failure modes, and close to the research impact. This role sits at the intersection of software, robotics hardware, and live operations. The best people in it are practical, technically sharp, calm under pressure, and motivated by making real systems work reliably at scale. This role will be based in San Francisco, CA 5 days per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. In this role, you will: Serve as an engineering owner for keeping a fleet of robotic workcells online in daily operation. Diagnose, fix, mitigate, or escalate issues spanning mechanics, electronics, controls, software interfaces, logs, and configuration. Partner closely with technicians, operators, and engineering teams to improve scalable fleet support processes. Build or spec lightweight hardware and software tools that improve monitoring, diagnostics, recovery, and handoffs. Create documentation, SOPs, and diagnostic playbooks that turn en

About the Team OpenAI is building the infrastructure foundation for the next generation of AI. The Data Center Engineering team defines the strategy, reference architectures, technical requirements, and delivery standards for the large-scale data centers that support OpenAI research, products, and infrastructure partners. As a Data Center Infrastructure Engineering Program Manager, you will help turn complex infrastructure strategy into executable programs across electrical, mechanical, controls, network, hardware, construction, commissioning, deployment, and operations workstreams. You will partner with research, hardware engineering, data center engineering, site development, supply chain, security, EHS, finance, legal, operations, and external delivery partners to bring OpenAI's infrastructure vision to life. About the Role We are looking for an Engineering Program Manager (EPM) to lead assigned infrastructure programs focused on production and non-production network integration, controls coordination, and the design and deployment of data hall or whitespace facilities. The EPM will support functional Directly Responsible Individuals (DRIs) across network, controls, structural, electrical, and mechanical disciplines. Key responsibilities include coordinating assigned workstreams and program controls, maintaining risks and interfaces, and supporting readiness within the network and data hall deployment track. The ideal candidate thrives on bringing structure to complex environments characterized by ambiguous technical requirements, large partner ecosystems, tight deadlines, and high operational stakes. This individual must be adept at keeping teams aligned on decisions, risks, dependencies, schedules, and readiness criteria, and escalating gaps or decision points when needed. Candidates should have a proven track record of managing technically challenging engineering programs across major lifecycle phases, including design, validation, procurement, construction, c

About the Team OpenAI's Industrial Compute organization is building and scaling the infrastructure required to support frontier AI. The Infrastructure Strategic Sourcing team connects technical and project requirements to supplier readiness, contracting, purchasing, equipment delivery, and portfolio-level risk visibility across owner-furnished contractor-installed equipment (OFCI), data center networking, rack systems and integration, fiber, cabling, optical interconnects, and related infrastructure. The team partners across Pre-Construction, Design, Construction, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Network Engineering, Hardware and Rack Delivery, Strategic Sourcing, Procurement, Legal, Finance, Accounts Payable, Logistics, and external suppliers. We build the operating mechanisms that keep sourcing decisions, purchase execution, long-lead equipment, network and fiber dependencies, rack readiness, and delivery commitments aligned to infrastructure schedules. About the Role We are seeking an Infrastructure Sourcing Operations Lead to own procurement operations across pre-construction, design, construction, and sourcing through purchase order issuance, while maintaining visibility through invoice resolution, production, logistics, delivery, installation, and readiness. The portfolio includes electrical and mechanical OFCI, networking equipment, rack systems and integration, fiber, cabling, optical interconnects, and other infrastructure required to bring capacity online. In this role, you will set priorities, make or escalate decisions that affect cost, supplier relationships, contractual position, and delivery schedules, and define the standards used by execution support for queue management, documentation, tracker maintenance, and recurring reporting. Success requires sound commercial and program judgment, operational rigor, systems thinking, and the ability to turn incomplete information across vendors, tools, and project teams into clear decisions, accountable

About the Team OpenAI is helping build the infrastructure that powers the next generation of artificial intelligence. Through Stargate, we are developing and operating large-scale AI compute campuses that require world-class execution across data center design, construction, commissioning, and operations. The Infrastructure Operations team is responsible for bringing AI infrastructure online and ensuring it operates reliably at scale. We partner closely with hardware, network, deployment, construction, and operations teams to deliver mission-critical environments capable of supporting frontier AI workloads. As our footprint expands, operational excellence becomes increasingly important to ensuring safe, reliable, and efficient campus operations. About the Role We are seeking a Facilities Operations Manager to support the commissioning, operational readiness, and long-term operation of next-generation AI data center campuses. This role sits at the intersection of construction, commissioning, hardware deployment, and facilities operations. You will be responsible for ensuring mission-critical infrastructure is prepared to support hardware deployment, transitioned successfully into production operations, and maintained to the highest standards of reliability and availability. You will lead day-to-day operational execution across electrical, mechanical, controls, and supporting infrastructure systems while partnering closely with commissioning teams, site operators, vendors, and engineering organizations. This role requires a strong blend of technical depth, operational leadership, and cross-functional execution. Key Responsibilities Lead day-to-day operations of mission-critical facility infrastructure across AI compute campuses. Own operational readiness activities supporting new campus deployments and infrastructure expansion. Partner with commissioning teams to transition facilities from construction and startup into steady-state operations. Develop, implement, and

About the Team Compute Foundations builds the software that manages OpenAI’s GPU compute infrastructure across sites, data centers, and infrastructure providers, supporting model training and inference. Our systems turn large, heterogeneous fleets of machines into dependable compute for research and products. We build Kubernetes-based control planes, controllers, services, and APIs that coordinate the lifecycle of machines and clusters. We connect global infrastructure management with the realities of bare-metal systems, giving clients consistent interfaces across differences in hardware, topology, and provider behavior. About the Role You will build distributed systems that provision, configure, and manage compute throughout its lifecycle. Your work will connect global services and Kubernetes controllers with the systems that bring machines online, update them safely, and recover them when something goes wrong. This role combines software architecture with an understanding of how machines and data centers work. You might design a lifecycle API, improve controller performance under high concurrency and provider rate limits, or trace a provisioning failure from an API through reconciliation to network boot or host configuration. You will help these systems remain reliable as the fleet expands across sites and generations of GPU hardware. We value depth in relevant systems and the ability to connect layers. You do not need to arrive as an expert in every component of the stack. In this role, you will: Design, build, and operate Kubernetes-based controllers and distributed services that coordinate infrastructure across sites, isolate failures, and scale as GPU capacity grows. Define APIs and resource models that let clients request and track lifecycle operations through consistent interfaces across hardware platforms and providers. Build provisioning and configuration services that coordinate network boot, hardware management interfaces, and the deployment of firmware,

ABOUT BASETEN Baseten powers mission-critical inference for the world's most dynamic AI companies, like Cursor, Notion, OpenEvidence, Abridge, Clay, Gamma, and Writer. By uniting applied AI research, flexible infrastructure, and seamless developer tooling, we enable companies operating at the frontier of AI to bring cutting-edge models into production. We're growing quickly and recently raised our $1.5B Series F , led by Altimeter Capital, Conviction Partners, and Spark Capital. Join us and help build the platform engineers turn to ship AI products. THE ROLE As a member of the Capacity Strategy & Operations team, you will sit at the intersection of supply intelligence, demand forecasting, and cross-functional execution, turning a complex, fast-moving hardware market into a predictable, reliable foundation for our customers and internal engineering teams. This is not a purely analytical role. You will own the end-to-end capacity planning process: from translating customer commitments and growth forecasts into concrete supply requirements, to coordinating fulfillment across vendors, finance, and the infrastructure team, to building the systems that make all of this repeatable and scalable. When supply is constrained and tradeoffs are unavoidable, you are the person in the room who can model the options, make a clear recommendation, and drive alignment fast. You are a strong fit if you have operated at the intersection of strategy and execution before — someone who is equally comfortable building a capacity model in a spreadsheet and running a cross-functional war room when a customer deployment is at risk. EXAMPLE INITIATIVES Demand-Supply Alignment Framework: Build and own the process that translates customer pipeline, signed commitments, and growth projections into a forward-looking GPU demand signal — so the team is never caught flat-footed when a customer scales faster than expected. Constrained Allocation Playbook: Define the decision framework for how Basete

About the Team Our mission at OpenAI is to discover and enact the path to safe, beneficial AGI. To do this, we believe that many technical breakthroughs are needed in generative modeling, reinforcement learning, large-scale optimization, active learning, and other areas. The team builds the performance-critical systems that allow OpenAI's models to run efficiently across a diverse set of AI accelerators. We work across the inference stack, from low-level kernels and compilers through model execution, to unlock the full capabilities of the underlying hardware. About the Role As a Software Engineer, Trainium, you will help bring OpenAI's inference workloads to AWS Trainium and build the software stack required to run cutting-edge frontier models efficiently on the platform. This is a deeply technical, cross-stack role spanning kernels, compilers, and model execution. You will work on the systems needed to support OpenAI's inference stack on Trainium, including developing and optimizing high-performance kernels, improving compiler support, and enabling efficient execution of the model forward pass. You'll work closely with engineers across inference, compilers, kernels, and ML systems to identify performance bottlenecks and build the software needed to take full advantage of Trainium. The work may range from low-level hardware-specific optimization to compiler and runtime improvements to integrating new model architectures into the inference stack. If you enjoy working at the intersection of ML systems, compilers, kernels, and accelerator hardware, this role is for you. We're looking for engineers who are self-directed, comfortable operating across abstraction layers, and excited to solve challenging performance problems for frontier-scale AI systems. In This Role, You Will Build and optimize OpenAI's inference stack for AWS Trainium. Develop high-performance kernels for critical model operations and workloads. Extend and improve compiler support to efficiently target

The Fleet team at OpenAI supports the computing environment that powers our cutting-edge research and product development. We oversee large-scale systems that span data centers, GPUs, networking, and more, ensuring high availability, performance, and efficiency. Our work enables OpenAI’s models to operate seamlessly at scale, supporting both internal research and external products like ChatGPT. We prioritize safety, reliability, and responsible AI deployment over unchecked growth. About the Role The Software Engineer, Operating Systems & Orchestration will focus on building systems to manage hardware, configurations, vendors, and the people interacting with our infrastructure. You will design and develop solutions that integrate individual nodes and servers into unified clusters, directly contributing to advancing AI research by streamlining the overall research user experience. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. In this role, you will: Design and build systems to manage both cloud and bare-metal fleets at scale. Develop tools that integrate low-level hardware metrics with high-level job scheduling and cluster management algorithms. Leverage LLMs to coordinate vendor operations and optimize infrastructure workflows. Automate infrastructure processes, reducing repetitive toil and improving system reliability. Collaborate with hardware, infrastructure, and research teams to ensure seamless integration across the stack. Continuously improve tools, automation, processes, and documentation to enhance operational efficiency. You might thrive in this role if you: Have strong software engineering skills with experience in large-scale infrastructure environments. Possess broad knowledge of cluster-level systems (e.g., Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, Terraform, cloud providers). Have deep expertise in server-level systems (e.g., systems, containerization, Chef,