# Principal Software Engineer, B2B Engineering

**Company**: OpenAI
**Location**: Remote - US
**Work arrangement**: remote
**Experience**: senior
**Job type**: Full time
**Salary**: $385K – $490K
**Category**: Engineering
**Industry**: Technology
**Wikidata**: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124605186

**Apply**: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/openai/aeff784b-ea9a-40c9-aa13-6cb0b5e362cc
**Canonical**: https://yubhub.co/jobs/job_dc3bc252-8e9

## Description

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

## Skills

### Required
- backend languages such as Python, Go, Rust, or TypeScript
- distributed systems
- API design
- software engineering fundamentals
- data pipelines
- secure enterprise infrastructure