Software Engineer, Productivity - Networking

About the TeamWe’re hiring software engineers to make OpenAI’s networking teams more productive. These teams build and operate the high-performance networking systems that support OpenAI’s training and inference infrastructure at frontier scale.About the RoleWe’re looking for someone who cares deeply about the developer experience of engineers working on complex infrastructure systems — especially around build systems, test architecture, release pipelines, and reliable development workflows.This role will be embedded with OpenAI’s networking team: making it faster, safer, and easier for engineers to build, test, validate, and ship changes across multi-server, networked, and hardware-adjacent environments.In this role you will:Improve development workflows for engineers building and operating OpenAI’s networking systemsDesign and improve continuous deployment, release, and validation pipelinesBuild and maintain test harnesses for multi-server, networked, and hardware-backed environmentsImprove iteration speed across C++, Python, and build-system-heavy codebasesPartner with engineers to identify friction in CI, testing, debugging, and deployment workflowsDrive testing and reliability strategy for infrastructure components that support large-scale training and inference workloadsWork closely with centralized developer experience teams while staying deeply embedded with the networking engineers closest to the systemsYou might thrive in this role if:You are motivated by helping other engineers move faster and with more confidenceYou have experience with CI/CD, release pipelines, testing infrastructure, or build systemsYou are comfortable moving between C++, Python, and build systems such as CMake, Bazel, or BlazeYou enjoy building test harnesses, automation, and workflow improvements for complex systemsYou do not need to be a networking expert, but you are excited to learn enough about the domain to make the team meaningfully more effectiveWhen you see repeated friction — slow builds, flaky tests, brittle release processes, painful debugging, unclear validation — your instinct is to fix the underlying systemYou are pragmatic and know how to balance high standards with forward progressYou like going end-to-end: understanding the engineers, the workflows, the codebase, and the operational realities behind the systemYou are self-directed and comfortable operating with ambiguity in a high-context infrastructure environmentAbout OpenAIOpenAI 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