OpenAI is hiring a Software Engineer, API Enterprise Controls in California. This is full-time work at OpenAI's location. The advertised pay is $266,000 to $445,000 a year.
Here is the role as OpenAI describes it.
API Enterprise Controls is part of the API Infrastructure organization and owns the platform capabilities that help developers, startups, and enterprises adopt the OpenAI API securely and confidently. We build the systems underneath our APIs and developer platform across authentication and identity, service accounts and key management, secure networking, compliance, auditability, observability, and operational controls. Our users are developers and teams running critical applications on OpenAI, and we partner closely with Product, go-to-market, security, and infrastructure teams to turn their most important needs into reliable, intuitive platform capabilities.
We are looking for an exceptional backend software engineer to help define and ship the enterprise capabilities our API Platform needs to scale.; this is a product-engineering role grounded in deep backend systems. You will work across databases, streaming systems, request routing, authentication, and developer-facing APIs while bringing strong product judgment, developer empathy, and attention to the small details that make a platform easier to understand, trust, and operate. You will lead large cross-functional initiatives, work closely with Product and go-to-market teams, engage directly with sophisticated users, and carry ambiguous needs from discovery through design, launch, and iteration.
Own backend product capabilities end to end across authentication and identity, service accounts and key controls, secure networking, compliance, observability, and operational workflows.
Partner with Product, go-to-market, security, infrastructure teams, and sophisticated customers to identify needs, shape the roadmap, and lead large cross-functional projects from design through launch.
Design developer-facing APIs, system behavior, configuration, error handling, safe defaults, auditing, and notifications with exceptional care for the details that define a great developer experience.
Build, operate, and debug highly reliable backend systems spanning databases, streaming infrastructure, request routing, and distributed services, with strong operational ownership.
9+ years of professional engineering experience, excluding internships, in relevant backend, platform, or product-driven engineering roles.
Exceptional backend engineering depth paired with strong product judgment and a track record of shipping API or platform capabilities that users depend on.
Experience leading large cross-functional initiatives, influencing product direction, and aligning engineering, Product, go-to-market, security, and infrastructure partners.
Proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Python, Go, Rust, TypeScript, or similar, with strong software design and systems fundamentals.
Experience with distributed systems, databases, streaming systems, request routing, authentication and identity, networking, or enterprise platform controls.
Strong communication and developer empathy, including experience working closely with product partners and users to turn ambiguous needs into clear technical decisions.
Strong opinions about reliability, DevOps, and operational excellence, paired with meticulous attention to the details that make complex systems feel simple and dependable.
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 applicable legally protected characteristic.
For additional information, please see OpenAIβs Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement .
Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.
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We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link .
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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.
OpenAI advertises $266,000 to $445,000 a year for this role.
No, it is an on-site job in California.
The posting mentions at least 9 years of relevant experience and skills such as Python, TypeScript, Go and Rust. Read the full description above for the complete list.
Use the apply button on this page. It takes you to OpenAI's own application form, so your CV goes directly to their hiring team.
OpenAI published the role on August 5, 2026. We check the employer's job board every day and take this page down when the role closes, so if you can read it, the job was still listed at our last check.
Source: OpenAI careers page (jobs.ashbyhq.com). Applications go straight to the employer. We check the listing daily and remove it once it closes.
OpenAI publishes its open roles on its own careers board. This page collects the OpenAI jobs that are live right now. Each listing links to OpenAI's application form, and we remove a listing once the employer closes it.
Industry: Technology
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