Principal Software Engineer, B2B Engineering

About the Role

We’re looking for a Principal Software Engineer to design and scale the systems that power our developer and enterprise-facing products. You’ll lead the architecture of backend services and platform capabilities that bring new AI functionality into production safely, reliably, and at global scale.

This role spans a broad technical surface area, including distributed systems, APIs, databases, data pipelines, and secure enterprise infrastructure. You’ll help shape both the technical foundation and the product experience of our platform, with a high bar for performance, safety, reliability, and API design.

In this role, you will

• Design, build, and scale the backend services, APIs, and infrastructure that power OpenAI’s developer and enterprise products
• Lead the architecture of distributed systems, databases, and data pipelines that support large-scale, high-reliability production workloads
• Own major platform capabilities end-to-end, from early technical strategy and design through implementation, launch, and long-term operation
• Shape the design of our APIs with care and intentionality, treating API interfaces as core product surfaces and driving a high-quality developer experience
• Build secure, reliable, and compliant systems that meet the needs of both enterprise and developer use cases
• Partner closely with product, research, design, infrastructure, and forward-deployed engineering teams to bring new capabilities into production
• Drive technical direction across complex problem spaces, making sound architectural tradeoffs that balance speed, quality, and long-term maintainability
• Improve engineering velocity by building internal tooling, platform abstractions, and systems that increase leverage across the broader organization
• Raise the bar for engineering quality, system design, operational excellence, and technical decision-making across teams
• Help identify and solve ambiguous, high-impact technical problems that cut across multiple systems and stakeholders

You might thrive in this role if you

• Have significant experience building, scaling, and evolving production backend systems in fast-moving environments
• Bring deep expertise in software engineering fundamentals, distributed systems, and API design
• Are proficient in one or more backend languages such as Python, Go, Rust, or TypeScript
• Have a track record of leading complex technical initiatives and driving architecture across teams or critical product areas
• Care deeply about reliability, safety, security, and performance in production environments
• Have strong product instincts and a high bar for developer experience and interface design
• Are comfortable working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and can create clarity where little exists
• Own problems end-to-end and are eager to learn whatever is needed to solve them
• Build thoughtfully, move with urgency, and collaborate effectively across disciplines
• Influence technical direction through strong judgment, clear communication, and consistently high-quality execution
• Have experience as a founder or early engineer at a startup, or have built products and platforms from scratch