System Engineer (Network / Storage / Systems)

About The Team

The Stargate team is responsible for building the physical and logical infrastructure that powers large-scale AI systems. We design and deliver next-generation compute environments that support frontier model training and inference across an expanding global footprint.

This work spans hardware systems, networking, storage, cluster operations, and vendor ecosystems—turning aggressive compute growth plans into scalable, reliable production environments.

About The Role

We are seeking a System Engineer (Network / Storage / Systems) to help architect, validate, and operationalize the core infrastructure systems that enable Stargate deployments.

In this role, you will work across networking, storage, system bring-up, hardware debugging, and cluster readiness. You will partner closely with hardware engineering, cluster software, infrastructure operations, and external vendors to ensure new systems are deployed efficiently and run reliably at scale.

This role is ideal for engineers who can operate across hardware and software boundaries, solve ambiguous technical problems, and drive complex systems into production.

This role is based in San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance.

Key Responsibilities

• Own system engineering workstreams across one or more critical domains including networking, storage, system validation, or bring-up.
• Design and improve top-of-network architectures spanning frontend, WAN, OOB, firewall, and adjacent infrastructure layers.
• Drive logical network readiness including routing, configuration management, provisioning, and issue resolution.
• Define storage architectures across in-rack, in-pod, cluster, and cloud tiers with focus on performance, lifecycle, and cost efficiency.

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• Evaluate vendor hardware and infrastructure proposals, providing technical feedback on architecture, reliability, and operational fit.
• Lead system bring-up for new hardware platforms including imaging, provisioning, validation, and readiness for production deployment.
• Debug complex system faults across firmware, NIC, GPU, server, and platform layers; drive root cause analysis with internal teams and external vendors.
• Build tools and automation that improve lab operations, SKU onboarding, fleet readiness, and deployment velocity.
• Partner with hardware, clusters, and operations teams to translate new compute platforms into stable production environments.
• Establish repeatable engineering standards, operational processes, and readiness gates for future Stargate expansions.
  
  

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in systems engineering, infrastructure engineering, hardware platforms, or large-scale compute environments.
• Strong technical depth in one or more areas: networking, storage systems, server platforms, firmware, Linux systems, or distributed infrastructure.
• Experience bringing up new hardware systems or clusters in lab or production environments.

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• Experience debugging low-level hardware/software issues and driving cross-functional RCA efforts.
• Familiarity with hyperscale infrastructure, AI clusters, HPC environments, or data center systems.
• Experience working with OEM, ODM, JDM, or hardware vendors.
• Strong scripting or software skills in Python, Go, Bash, or similar.
• Ability to operate effectively in fast-moving environments with high ownership and evolving technical requirements.
  
  

Preferred Skills

• Experience supporting GPU clusters or accelerator-based infrastructure at scale.
• Familiarity with cluster management, provisioning, or fleet lifecycle tooling.
• Experience with network automation, storage optimization, or systems observability.
• Background working across both hardware and software engineering organizations.

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• Experience scaling greenfield infrastructure deployments or rapid expansion programs.
  
  

About OpenAI

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.

We are 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.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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