Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. They are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Infrastructure Security team, responsible for safeguarding core research and production environments and driving the execution of critical foundational security services.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture and roadmap for one or more core security services (e.g., authN/Z, policy enforcement, secure proxies, key management), taking them from design to rollout to long-term operation
• Design and implement planet-scale security systems that provide strong guarantees across hardware, operating systems, Kubernetes, networks, and CI/CD: balancing security, reliability, latency, and developer ergonomics
• Lead cross-functional launches with infrastructure and research engineering teams, shaping interfaces, migration plans, and safe rollout strategies across large fleets and critical workflows
• Build or evolve security primitives (identity, attestation, authorization, encryption key lifecycle, access mediation) that become platform building blocks for OpenAI
• Leverage frontier models and agents to develop automation and detection tooling to continuously identify and mitigate risks in large-scale cloud and on-prem environments
• Lead design reviews and threat models for major initiatives, and drive closure on systemic issues
• Mentor engineers across InfraSec and partner teams, raising the bar on engineering quality, operational readiness, and secure-by-default practices

Skills

• Strong software engineering skills with a track record of shipping and operating reliable distributed systems in production
• Experience building or operating critical infrastructure, especially security infrastructure, at planet scale (e.g., auth services, service-to-service proxies, certificate or key-management systems)
• Deep understanding of security principles, best practices, and common vulnerabilities
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-team technical initiatives: setting direction, aligning stakeholders, driving execution, and delivering measurable outcomes
• Expertise and curiosity about using frontier models and agents to effectively solve security challenges
• Expertise in securing large-scale cloud platforms (e.g., Azure, AWS, GCP), including multi-cloud networks and cloud-agnostic system design
• A proactive mindset, with the ability to identify and address security gaps or inefficiencies through automation and tooling
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with an ability to think critically and objectively assess risks
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey complex security concepts to executive, technical, and non-technical stakeholders

Company Overview

• OpenAI develops artificial intelligence models and deploys machine learning software tools, including ChatGPT. It is a sub-organization of OpenAI Foundation. It was founded in 2015, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA, with a workforce of 1001-5000 employees. Its website is https://openai.com.

Company H1B Sponsorship

• OpenAI has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships, with 210 in 2026, 103 in 2025, 74 in 2024, 15 in 2023, 18 in 2022, 10 in 2021, 6 in 2020. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role.