Hardware Development Infrastructure Engineer · OpenAI

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 18:28:58 GMT
Engineering

OpenAI · San Francisco · $260K – $335K • Offers Equity · hybrid

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

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.

Compensation

$260K – $335K • Offers Equity

The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. If the role is non-exempt, overtime pay will be provided consistent with applicable laws.