Hardware Development Infrastructure Engineer

ABOUT THE TEAM: OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops silicon and system-level solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. The team is responsible for building the next generation of AI-native silicon while working closely with software and research partners to co-design hardware tightly integrated with AI models. In addition to delivering production-grade silicon for OpenAI’s supercomputing infrastructure, the team also creates custom design tools and methodologies that accelerate innovation and enable hardware optimized specifically for AI. ABOUT THE ROLE We’re looking for a Hardware Development Infrastructure Engineer to build and run the infrastructure that powers OpenAI’s hardware development lifecycle. You’ll work closely with hardware teams to translate their workflows into scalable, observable, and automated systems, and then own the platforms that support them over time. This role sits at the intersection of hardware, cloud, HPC, DevOps, and data. You’ll design regression systems, CI/CD pipelines, cloud and cluster platforms, and the data foundations that make development efficiency visible and measurable. IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL: - Partner with hardware teams on workflows and tooling: Embed with teams across DV, PD, emulation, formal, and software to understand development flows, identify failure modes, and deliver tooling (CLIs, services, APIs) that reduces manual work and accelerates iteration.

• Build and operate regression systems at scale: Own regressions end-to-end—from definition and scheduling to execution, results ingestion, triage, and reporting—while improving throughput, reproducibility, and flake reduction.
• Own CI/CD for infrastructure and tooling: Design and operate pipelines for infrastructure-as-code, services, images, and cluster configuration changes, including testing, gated deploys, staged rollouts, and safe rollback.
• Run cloud and HPC platforms: Design, provision, and operate cloud infrastructure (Azure preferred) and HPC/HTC clusters (e.g., Slurm), tuning scheduling policies, autoscaling, node lifecycles, and cost-performance tradeoffs.
• Build data foundations and visibility: Develop ETL pipelines to ingest metrics, logs, and results; operate databases for workflow metadata and outcomes; and build dashboards that surface efficiency, utilization, and reliability trends.
• Drive operational excellence: Establish monitoring and alerting, lead incident response and postmortems, maintain runbooks, and produce clear, durable documentation. YOU MIGHT THRIVE IN THIS ROLE IF YOU HAVE: - Familiarity with chip development workflows and at least one deep EDA domain (e.g., DV, PD, emulation, or formal verification). Strong infrastructure fundamentals, including cloud platforms, networking, security, performance, and automation.
• Experience operating cloud environments (Azure preferred; AWS, GCP, or OCI acceptable) with strong infrastructure-as-code practices (e.g., Terraform, Bicep; configuration management tools a plus). Strong programming skills (Python preferred) and solid software engineering and scripting practices.
• Experience building and operating CI/CD systems (e.g., Jenkins, Buildkite, GitHub Actions), including testing and release workflows.
• Database experience (e.g., Postgres or MySQL), including schema design, migrations, indexing, and operational safety.
• Clear communicator with strong judgment—able to explain tradeoffs, propose pragmatic solutions, and articulate a realistic vision for scalable infrastructure PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS - Experience operating Slurm or other large-scale cluster schedulers.
• Experience with enterprise authentication and directory services (e.g., Entra ID, LDAP, FreeIPA, SSSD).
• Experience building or operating backend and middleware systems such as message queues, caches, artifact stores, or internal service platforms.
• Familiarity with high-performance storage architectures and data movement optimization.
• Experience running and monitoring license servers for expensive or capacity-constrained toolchains. To comply with U.S. export control laws and regulations, candidates for this role may need to meet certain legal status requirements as provided in those laws and regulations. About OpenAI OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicab

• To demonstrate proficiency in required tools, create a sample project showcasing your ability to use Excel for data analysis and visualization in a hardware development context, such as tracking project timelines or resource allocation.
• Develop a deep understanding of OpenAI's hardware development lifecycle and be prepared to discuss how your skills and experience can support the company's goals of building AI-native silicon and custom design tools.
• Stand out by highlighting your experience with version control systems, such as Git, and your ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams, including software and research partners, to co-design hardware and software solutions.
• Prepare a portfolio of work samples that demonstrate your ability to design, implement, and maintain infrastructure for hardware development, including any experience with cloud-based infrastructure or DevOps tools.
• Be prepared to discuss your experience with agile development methodologies and how you can apply them to the hardware development lifecycle, including iterating on design tools and methodologies to accelerate innovation.
• Research OpenAI's compensation package and be prepared to negotiate salary based on industry standards for Hardware Development Infrastructure Engineers in San Francisco, highlighting your unique skills and experience to support your requested compensation.