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- Tasks: Design and build distributed systems for large-scale AI training workloads.
- Company: Join OpenAI, a leader in AI research and deployment.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, inclusive culture, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on cutting-edge AI technology and infrastructure.
- Qualifications: Experience in low-level software and understanding of distributed systems.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with a focus on performance and reliability.
The predicted salary is between 36000 - 60000 ÂŁ per year.
About the Team
The Platform Systems team at OpenAI operates at the intersection of cutting‑edge AI and large‑scale distributed systems. We build the engineering and research infrastructure required to train OpenAI’s flagship models on some of the world’s largest, custom‑built supercomputers. Our team develops core model training software and works deep in the stack – spanning collective communication, compute efficiency, parallelism strategies, fault tolerance, failure detection, and observability. The systems we build are foundational to OpenAI’s research velocity, enabling reliable, efficient training at frontier scale. We collaborate closely with researchers across the organization, continuously incorporating learnings from across OpenAI into the evolution of our training platform.
About the Role
As a Software Engineer, Platform Systems, you will design and build distributed systems that provide visibility into large‑scale training workloads and help operate them reliably at scale. You’ll work on failure detection, tracing, and observability systems that identify slow or faulty nodes, surface performance bottlenecks, and help engineers understand and optimize massive distributed training jobs. This infrastructure is critical to operating OpenAI’s training stack and is actively evolving to support new use cases and increasingly complex workloads. This role sits at the core of our training infrastructure, blending systems engineering, performance analysis, and large‑scale debugging.
In This Role, You Will
- Design and build distributed failure detection, tracing, and profiling systems for large‑scale AI training jobs
- Develop tooling to identify slow, faulty, or misbehaving nodes and provide actionable visibility into system behavior
- Improve observability, reliability, and performance across OpenAI’s training platform
- Debug and resolve issues in complex, high‑throughput distributed systems
- Collaborate with systems, infrastructure, and research teams to evolve platform capabilities
- Extend and adapt failure detection systems or tracing systems to support new training paradigms and workloads
You Might Thrive in This Role If You
- Care deeply about performance, stability, and observability in distributed systems
- Enjoy finding and fixing issues in large‑scale systems and automating operational workflows
- Have experience writing low‑level software where system details matter
- Understand hardware, operating systems, networking, concurrency, and distributed systems
- Have a background in high‑performance computing or low‑level systems engineering
- Are excited to work on critical infrastructure that powers frontier AI research
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.
Software Engineer, Platform Systems in City of London employer: OpenAI
Contact Detail:
OpenAI Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Software Engineer, Platform Systems in City of London
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to folks in the industry, especially those at OpenAI. A friendly chat can open doors and give you insights that a job description just can't.
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! If you've got a project or two that showcases your experience with distributed systems or performance analysis, make sure to highlight them in conversations or during interviews.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for technical interviews by brushing up on your knowledge of failure detection and observability systems. Practice explaining complex concepts clearly; it shows you can communicate effectively with both engineers and researchers.
✨Tip Number 4
Don't forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, it shows you're genuinely interested in joining the team.
We think you need these skills to ace Software Engineer, Platform Systems in City of London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your Application: Make sure to customise your CV and cover letter for the Software Engineer role. Highlight your experience with distributed systems and any relevant projects that showcase your skills in performance analysis and debugging.
Showcase Your Passion: Let us know why you’re excited about working at OpenAI! Share your enthusiasm for AI and how you see yourself contributing to our mission of ensuring that AI benefits all of humanity.
Be Clear and Concise: When writing your application, keep it straightforward. Use clear language to describe your experiences and skills, especially those related to low-level software and high-performance computing.
Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to submit your application through our website. It’s the best way for us to receive your details and ensures you’re considered for the role. Plus, it’s super easy!
How to prepare for a job interview at OpenAI
✨Know Your Distributed Systems
Make sure you brush up on your knowledge of distributed systems, especially around failure detection and observability. Be ready to discuss specific examples from your past experiences where you’ve tackled performance bottlenecks or debugging in large-scale systems.
✨Showcase Your Problem-Solving Skills
Prepare to share detailed stories about how you've identified and resolved issues in complex systems. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your answers, highlighting your analytical thinking and technical skills.
✨Familiarise Yourself with OpenAI's Work
Do some homework on OpenAI’s projects and their training infrastructure. Understanding their approach to AI and how your role fits into their mission will show your genuine interest and help you ask insightful questions during the interview.
✨Collaborative Mindset is Key
Since this role involves working closely with various teams, be prepared to discuss your experience in collaborative environments. Share examples of how you’ve worked with researchers or engineers to evolve platform capabilities and improve system performance.
