Tech Lead, Deployment & Operations — Custom Infrastructure
OpenAI · San Francisco, CA · Scaling
About this role
OpenAI is hiring a senior-level Technical Lead in the software engineering function based in San Francisco, CA. The posting calls out experience with Observability, Incident Response, Automation, OpenAI. Compensation is listed at $342,000–$445,000 per year.
- Role
- Technical Lead
- Function
- software engineering
- Level
- senior
- Track
- Tech leadership
- Employment
- Full-time
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
- Department
- Scaling
- Posted
- May 16, 2026
More roles at OpenAI
Job description
from OpenAI careersAbout the Team
OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops silicon and system-level solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. The team is responsible for building the next generation of AI-native silicon while working closely with software and research partners to co-design hardware tightly integrated with AI models. In addition to delivering production-grade silicon for OpenAI’s supercomputing infrastructure, the team also creates custom design tools and methodologies that accelerate innovation and enable hardware optimized specifically for AI.
About the Role
We are seeking a Technical Lead to lead deployment and operations for OpenAI’s Silicon & Systems team. This person will become the Directly-Responsible Individual responsible for bringing OpenAI’s custom silicon and associated systems into data center environments, ensuring successful deployment, bring-up, validation, operational readiness, and ongoing reliability at scale.
This role sits at the intersection of silicon, systems, infrastructure, data center operations, and software. You will lead a team focused on taking new hardware platforms from lab validation into production data center deployment. You will be responsible for building the operational processes, technical workflows, tooling, and cross-functional alignment required to deploy and operate custom AI hardware reliably in OpenAI’s supercomputing infrastructure.