Product Designer, Physical Engineering

We are seeking a highly autonomous Product Designer to become the first dedicated designer on the Physical Engineering team at OpenAI. You will help define this product area from its earliest stages, shaping what we build, how it works, and how design operates within the team.

The Physical Engineering team sits within OpenAI's Enterprise Verticals organization, exploring how frontier AI can help people design, simulate, and build better physical products. You will work deeply with engineers and customers to understand complex technical workflows, identify valuable opportunities, and turn emerging AI capabilities into intuitive, trustworthy products.

Responsibilities:

• Define the product and design vision for AI-powered physical-engineering experiences.
• Lead design from customer discovery and early prototyping through detailed execution, launch, and iteration.
• Create intuitive interfaces that help engineers understand, inspect, and refine complex designs, simulations, and model outputs.
• Work directly with mechanical, electrical, and other physical engineers to understand their tools, constraints, and workflows.
• Partner closely with product, engineering, research, data science, and forward-deployed teams to translate emerging AI capabilities into practical products.
• Prototype new interaction models for visual, spatial, and technically complex work.
• Balance speed and exploration with a high bar for interaction design, visual craft, reliability, and user trust.
• Establish foundational design patterns and practices that can scale across Physical Engineering and other enterprise verticals.
• Operate independently, identify the highest-leverage opportunities, and bring clarity to an exceptionally early and ambiguous product space.

Requirements:

• Have independently led substantial zero-to-one products from early exploration through launch.
• Bring exceptional product judgment, interaction design, and visual craft to complex professional software.
• Are highly autonomous and comfortable defining both the problem and the path forward.
• Think and operate like a founder: learning quickly, making pragmatic decisions, and remaining accountable for outcomes.
• Enjoy working directly with highly technical users and translating specialized workflows into clear product experiences.
• Can move fluidly between long-term vision, systems thinking, rapid prototyping, and detailed execution.
• Build alignment through compelling prototypes, clear narratives, and close cross-functional collaboration.
• Are energized by unfamiliar domains and can develop enough technical depth to make thoughtful design decisions.
• Want to help establish the design culture and foundations of a new team.

Nice to have:

• Designing CAD, CAE, eCAD, simulation, chip-design, manufacturing, or other engineering software.
• Building interactive tools for visual, spatial, data-intensive, or technically complex workflows.
• Designing professional or enterprise products that integrate with established tools and systems.
• Working as a founding designer, early startup designer, or first designer within a new product area.
• Designing AI-powered products and evaluating whether their outputs are understandable, useful, and reliable.