
Abuse Investigator – AI Self-Improvement Risk
OpenAI
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Hybrid
Location: San Francisco • California • United States
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Salary
💰 $288,000 - $320,000 per year
About the role
- Review leads, investigate model behavior, and identify cases where systems demonstrate agentic or autonomous patterns that introduce safety risks
- Detect and analyze behaviors such as multi-step planning, capability chaining, tool use, persistence, and workaround behavior
- Develop signals and tracking strategies to help proactively identify emerging agentic risk patterns across our platform
- Identify gaps in existing safeguards, evaluations, or monitoring systems and propose improvements
- Communicate investigation findings clearly to technical, policy, and leadership stakeholders
- Be someone people enjoy working with and appreciate the opportunity to help others
Requirements
- Have deep expertise in investigating complex, adversarial, or emergent system behavior, ideally in AI safety, security, cyber, or trust & safety environments
- Have strong familiarity with technical investigations, especially using SQL, Python, or similar tools, in a government, research, or technology setting
- Have experience analyzing multi-step systems, automation, or agentic workflows, and understanding how behaviors emerge across interactions
- Have at least 6 years of experience conducting investigations, threat analysis, or research in complex and ambiguous domains
- Have experience identifying failure modes, unintended behaviors, or system-level risks, particularly in AI or software systems
- Have at least two years of experience helping to develop automated or scalable approaches to detection or investigation
- Experience presenting analytic work in technical, research, or policy settings
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
- Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
- 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
- Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)
- Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
- 13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)
- Mental health and wellness support
- Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
- Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth
- Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
- Relocation support for eligible employees
- Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard Skills & Tools
SQLPythoninvestigating complex systemsthreat analysisanalyzing multi-step systemsautomationagentic workflowsdeveloping automated detectiondeveloping scalable approachesidentifying failure modes
Soft Skills
communicationcollaborationproblem-solvinginterpersonal skillsleadershipclarity in presenting findingsadaptabilitycritical thinkingempathysupportive attitude