About this role.
OpenAI is hiring an Infrastructure Security Engineer to secure research and production foundations, including GPU clusters, multi-cloud environments, datacenters, networks, storage, and sensitive data pathways. The role designs and deploys controls spanning hardware, firmware/BMC, operating systems, Kubernetes, networks, and CI/CD systems. Key projects include checkpoint encryption, network isolation, secret management, and machine identity for emerging AI workloads. Success requires deep cloud and on-premises security expertise, scalable automation, risk assessment, and strong cross-functional communication. This is a US-remote role with listed locations in New York City, Seattle, and San Francisco.
Role DNA
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5/5Pace & Pressure
5/5Autonomy Level
5/5Communication Load
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Sample interview questions
I would begin with a threat model covering cluster administration, workloads, supply chain, network paths, secrets, and tenant boundaries. I would establish identity-driven access controls, hardened cluster baselines, admission policies, workload isolation, image provenance controls, network segmentation, centralized logging, and continuous configuration monitoring. I would then validate the controls through adversarial testing and operational readiness reviews.
I would inventory human and non-human identities, define ownership and lifecycle requirements, and centralize issuance through short-lived, workload-bound credentials. The design would use strong authentication, automated rotation, least-privilege authorization, auditable access, and policy enforcement integrated with deployment workflows. I would prioritize eliminating static secrets and measure adoption, credential age, privileged access, and exception rates.
These layers introduce persistence and control-plane risks that can survive operating-system reinstallation, as well as risks from insecure management interfaces and supply-chain compromise. Mitigations include hardware inventory and attestation, secure boot and measured boot, signed firmware, tightly segmented BMC networks, privileged-access controls, patch governance, logging, and physical security processes. I would also maintain clear incident procedures for suspected firmware-level compromise.
I would first understand the team’s workflow and quantify the risk the control addresses. I would propose an automated, paved-path implementation that minimizes manual work, pilot it with a partner team, and use results to refine reliability and developer experience. Clear documentation, measurable outcomes, executive alignment for high-risk exceptions, and responsive support are essential for broad adoption.
I would map assets, data flows, trust boundaries, and administrative paths, then define explicit allowed communication patterns. I would validate segmentation with configuration review, flow telemetry, access-policy tests, and controlled attempts to traverse prohibited boundaries. Effective isolation should be continuously monitored, resilient to infrastructure changes, and paired with a documented exception process and periodic recertification.
About the Team
Security is at the foundation of OpenAI’s mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.
The Security team protects OpenAI’s technology, people, and products. We are technical in what we build but are operational in how we do our work, and are committed to supporting all products and research at OpenAI. Our Security team tenets include: prioritizing for impact, enabling researchers, preparing for future transformative technologies, and engaging a robust security culture.
About the Role
OpenAI is seeking a Security Engineer to join our Infrastructure Security (InfraSec) team. InfraSec protects the foundations of OpenAI’s research and production environments, spanning GPU supercomputing clusters, multi-cloud infrastructure, datacenters, networking, storage, and the critical services that power our frontier AI models. Our charter includes securing everything from bare-metal hardware and firmware, to Kubernetes clusters and service meshes, to data storage and access pathways for highly sensitive model weights and user data.
In this role, you will:
Design and build security controls across diverse layers (e.g., physical hardware, firmware/BMC, OS, Kubernetes, networks, and CI/CD) to defend against sophisticated adversaries and insider threats.
Collaborate with engineering and security teams to drive deployment of security enhancements and control changes across broad-scale infrastructure.
Tackle high-impact projects such as checkpoint encryption, network isolation, secret management, and machine identity, while continuously raising the security bar for emerging AI workloads.
Take a generalist approach to building security controls, balancing a mix of security expertise and broad technical skillsets to adapt to evolving challenges.
You will thrive in this role if you have:
Deep understanding of security principles, best practices, and common vulnerabilities.
A proactive mindset, with the ability to identify and address security gaps or inefficiencies through automation and tooling.
A track record of delivering scalable solutions and driving impactful changes across infrastructure in real-world projects.
Expertise in the security of cloud platforms (e.g., Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure), especially securing multi-cloud networks and infrastructure, and designing cloud agnostic systems.
Experience securing on-prem deployments and datacenters from construction to multi-tenant use.
Familiarity with container security, orchestration security, and authentication/authorization.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with an ability to think critically and objectively assess security risks.
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey complex security concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Excitement about collaborating with cross-functional teams to build secure, reliable systems that scale globally.
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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We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.
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