Research Infrastructure Engineer, Training Systems

OpenAI

. Build and maintain infrastructure for large-scale model training and experimentation.

Posted 4/27/2026full-timeSan Francisco • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesMid-LevelSenior💰 $295,000 - $380,000 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Distributed SystemsPythonPyTorch

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Build and maintain infrastructure for large-scale model training and experimentation.
Design APIs and interfaces that make complex training workflows easier to express and harder to misuse.
Improve reliability, debuggability, and performance across training and data pipelines.
Debug issues spanning Python, PyTorch, distributed systems, GPUs, networking, and storage.
Write tests, benchmarks, and diagnostics that catch meaningful regressions.

Requirements

What you’ll need

You want to build systems that enable new model training approaches, not just optimize established ones.
You have strong systems instincts and care deeply about performance, reliability, and clean abstractions.
You have good taste in API and interface design, with empathy for the researchers and engineers using your tools.
You are comfortable working across ML research code and production-quality infrastructure.
You enjoy debugging from evidence: profiles, traces, logs, tests, and minimal reproductions.

Benefits

Comp & perks

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.

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

PythonPyTorchdistributed systemsAPIsmodel trainingdebuggingperformance optimizationdata pipelinestestingbenchmarking

Soft Skills

systems instinctsperformance focusreliability focusclean abstractionsAPI designempathycollaborationproblem-solvingattention to detaildebugging from evidence