Senior Staff Software Engineer, Gov

🚨 IMPORTANT: US Citizenship is required for this role due to public sector and government compliance requirements.

🏢 About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. Creator of industry-defining systems like ChatGPT, GPT-4, and DALL-E, OpenAI builds frontier AI models and deploys them to hundreds of millions of users worldwide through consumer products and enterprise APIs.

🎯 The Role

The Applied Engineering team brings OpenAI's technology safely into real-world applications across consumers, enterprises, and public sector organizations. In this Senior Staff role, you will lead the deployment of OpenAI's platform and ChatGPT capabilities into high-stakes, security-sensitive environments across government and public sector missions. (Internal title: Member of Technical Staff).

🛠️ Tech Stack

• React, JavaScript & TypeScript
• Python
• Kubernetes & Terraform
• Distributed Cloud & On-Premises Architecture
• REST & Streaming APIs

💼 What You'll Do

• Own the end-to-end delivery of new user-facing ChatGPT and API features across cloud and on-premises setups
• Partner directly with public sector customers to understand mission-critical problems and architect tailored software solutions
• Embed with cross-functional teams spanning security, compliance, product, and infrastructure
• Collaborate with AI researchers to integrate and fine-tune model capabilities for domain-specific government requirements
• Optimize application responsiveness, resilience, and serving infrastructure at enterprise scale
• Provide senior technical leadership and architectural guidance across complex multi-system initiatives

✅ What You'll Need

• US Citizenship (mandatory for government customer compliance)
• 9+ years of software engineering experience shipping production systems at product-led companies
• Deep proficiency with JavaScript, React, and modern web application patterns
• Strong backend software engineering background with languages such as Python
• Practical experience with infrastructure primitives including Kubernetes and Terraform
• High comfort level operating in fast-moving, loosely defined environments with competing priorities
• Passion for delivering safe, high-impact AI technology for public sector missions