Software Engineer, Compute Foundations Systems
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Overview
OpenAI is seeking a Software Engineer for the Compute Foundations team to build and maintain the operating-system foundation for frontier compute fleets, focusing on Linux systems and GPU clusters. OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.
Responsibilities
- •Build and maintain the Linux host software stack for large GPU clusters, including Ubuntu and OS images, kernel configuration and modules, drivers, packages, disks and storage configuration, and machine configuration.
- •Design reproducible OS-image builds, package and repository workflows, and system configuration for heterogeneous bare-metal and cloud compute fleets.
- •Integrate, test, and qualify kernels, modules, drivers, packages, and firmware across new and existing hardware platforms; build safe canary, rollback, and recovery paths for system changes.
- •Bring up new hardware platforms and compute SKUs, working with hardware engineers and vendors to resolve firmware, driver, operating-system, and compatibility issues.
- •Debug complex system failures across boot and provisioning, firmware, disks, kernels and drivers, and workload interactions; turn recurring failure modes into durable fixes, tests, and automation.
- •Improve provisioning, repave, maintenance, and recovery correctness by eliminating manual host-by-host intervention and making system behavior predictable at fleet scale.
- •Build focused systems tooling and diagnostics that make the host software stack easier to validate, troubleshoot, and operate across the installed fleet.
Conditions
- •OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.
- •Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law.
- •Reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities are provided upon request.
Requirements
- •Significant experience building, integrating, or operating production Linux systems, particularly Ubuntu, Debian, or another major Linux distribution.
- •Deep experience in one or more of: Linux kernels, modules, or device drivers; Linux distribution, package, repository, or OS-image engineering; boot, provisioning, disks, or machine configuration; firmware and driver integration, qualification, or rollout.
- •Ability to write, debug, and maintain production-quality systems software and automation using appropriate systems languages, scripting, and Linux tooling.
- •Understanding of how to build, test, package, qualify, and safely deliver system-level changes, including compatibility testing, staged rollout, rollback, and recovery.
- •Ability to systematically debug failures that cross hardware, firmware, boot, operating-system, kernel, and driver boundaries, and collaborate effectively with hardware and software partners.
- •Enjoyment in investigating difficult system behavior, identifying underlying failure modes, and building pragmatic fixes that make production systems more reliable.