About the job
Location: San Francisco, CA (Hybrid: 4 days onsite/week). Relocation assistance available.
About Our Team:
At OpenAI, we are at the forefront of technology, creating foundational platform software that ensures our consumer products are reliable, secure, and high-performing. Our team collaborates across various system layers, working closely with engineering partners to deliver exceptional capabilities from initial concept to final launch.
Role Overview:
We are looking for a passionate Systems Software Engineer to lead the design, implementation, and debugging of critical platform components and the pipelines that build and update system images. Your focus will span across operating system layers, emphasizing performance optimization, security enhancements, and in-depth system debugging to deliver production-grade systems that exceed expectations.
Key Responsibilities:
Design and develop robust system-level components and services within both kernel and user spaces.
Configure and maintain essential OS platform services (init, services, networking, security policies) and related tools.
Build and manage image and update pipelines, ensuring their reliability, reproducibility, and rollback safety.
Instrument system performance through profiling and tracing; enhance CPU, memory, I/O, and energy efficiency.
Oversee platform observability and reliability, including logging, crash capture, watchdogs, and diagnostics.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define interfaces and deliver comprehensive end-to-end features.
Establish and promote strong engineering practices such as code reviews, continuous integration, reproducible builds, and effective release management.
Work alongside external vendors to support builds and deployments.
You Will Excel in This Role If You:
Have successfully launched production systems software on modern operating systems.
Possess proficiency in C/C++ and a scripting language, with a strong understanding of OS internals including concurrency, memory management, filesystems, networking, and power management.
Demonstrate exceptional systems debugging skills utilizing debuggers, tracers, profilers, and logs across kernel/user-space boundaries.
Comprehend the configuration of platform services and interfaces, effectively translating requirements into stable, well-documented APIs.
Are knowledgeable about user-space foundations including service management, IPC, networking, packaging, and automation.
Have experience collaborating with external partners to deliver high-quality software solutions.
