Senior Staff Backend Software Engineer, API Platform
OpenAI, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Senior Staff Backend Software Engineer, API Platform
B2B Applications - San Francisco
About the Team
Our team brings OpenAI’s most capable technology to the world through our developer platform: the OpenAI API. As the leading AI development platform, our API is used by millions of developers and the majority of enterprises worldwide, powering most AI applications. Recent releases include gpt‑5, gpt‑realtime, the Responses API, Agents SDK, and many other products and features.
About the Role
We are looking for a software engineer to own the design of our APIs. The API is our product, so we treat its design and development with care and intentionality. Every endpoint, field name, and enum value is a product interface that must be designed well. Engineers should love building APIs, sweat the details of API design, and have a discerning taste for a well‑designed API experience. You will shape the future roadmap of the OpenAI API through both building and designing it.
In this role, you will
Design and build products that we launch in the API—extending existing endpoints, adding new endpoints, or rethinking our entire API suite.
Play a major role in our API Review process, working with other teams to ensure our APIs meet our design standards.
Collaborate closely with the API team, the Developer Experience team, and the GTM team to make our APIs the best in the world.
You might thrive in this role if you:
Appreciate taste in API design—believing there are well‑designed and poorly designed APIs.
Can thrive and operate independently in a fast‑paced environment with ambiguous requirements and goals.
Love building for other developers and thrive on feedback from opinionated users.
Are an engineer at heart but are willing to lean into product decisions.
Think of APIs as ladders.
Title note:
At OpenAI, research and engineering hires share the internal title Member of Technical Staff. We use Senior Staff externally to signal the depth of experience, ownership, and technical leadership expected for this role.
We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristic. For additional information, please see OpenAI’s 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 U.S.-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.
We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. Requests can be made via the company’s accommodations portal.
Compensation
$230K – $385K + equity offers
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B2B Applications - San Francisco
About the Team
Our team brings OpenAI’s most capable technology to the world through our developer platform: the OpenAI API. As the leading AI development platform, our API is used by millions of developers and the majority of enterprises worldwide, powering most AI applications. Recent releases include gpt‑5, gpt‑realtime, the Responses API, Agents SDK, and many other products and features.
About the Role
We are looking for a software engineer to own the design of our APIs. The API is our product, so we treat its design and development with care and intentionality. Every endpoint, field name, and enum value is a product interface that must be designed well. Engineers should love building APIs, sweat the details of API design, and have a discerning taste for a well‑designed API experience. You will shape the future roadmap of the OpenAI API through both building and designing it.
In this role, you will
Design and build products that we launch in the API—extending existing endpoints, adding new endpoints, or rethinking our entire API suite.
Play a major role in our API Review process, working with other teams to ensure our APIs meet our design standards.
Collaborate closely with the API team, the Developer Experience team, and the GTM team to make our APIs the best in the world.
You might thrive in this role if you:
Appreciate taste in API design—believing there are well‑designed and poorly designed APIs.
Can thrive and operate independently in a fast‑paced environment with ambiguous requirements and goals.
Love building for other developers and thrive on feedback from opinionated users.
Are an engineer at heart but are willing to lean into product decisions.
Think of APIs as ladders.
Title note:
At OpenAI, research and engineering hires share the internal title Member of Technical Staff. We use Senior Staff externally to signal the depth of experience, ownership, and technical leadership expected for this role.
We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristic. For additional information, please see OpenAI’s 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 U.S.-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.
We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. Requests can be made via the company’s accommodations portal.
Compensation
$230K – $385K + equity offers
#J-18808-Ljbffr