Software Engineer, Machine Learning (New Grad)

About This Role

OpenAI is hiring entry-level Software Engineers in Machine Learning to work on the training, fine-tuning, and infrastructure that powers GPT, DALL-E, Sora, and future foundation models. This is one of the most impactful ML engineering roles available to a recent graduate anywhere in the industry.

Job Overview

• Job Title: Software Engineer, Machine Learning (New Grad)
• Company: OpenAI
• Location: San Francisco, CA / Seattle, WA / New York, NY
• Job Type: Full-time
• Experience Level: Entry-level (0–2 years)
• Salary Range: $48–$65/hr
• Posted Date: 2026-06-01
• Application Deadline: 2026-07-01

Role Context

OpenAI operates in small, high-trust teams that move quickly. MLE new grad hires are expected to contribute meaningfully to training runs, RLHF pipelines, or inference optimization within their first quarter. You will have access to large-scale compute and work alongside researchers who published the papers defining modern AI.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and maintain large-scale distributed training infrastructure in Python
• Implement and iterate on RLHF, fine-tuning, and alignment training pipelines
• Profile and optimize model training throughput across thousands of GPUs
• Write data processing pipelines for pretraining and instruction-tuning datasets
• Collaborate closely with research scientists to run model ablations and evaluations
• Maintain high engineering standards in a fast-moving research environment

Requirements & Skills

• Bachelor's or Master's in CS, AI, or a quantitative field (2024–2025 grad)
• Strong Python skills with PyTorch experience at a project or internship level
• Understanding of transformer architectures and language model training
• Comfort with distributed systems concepts (data parallelism, gradient checkpointing)
• Ability to work independently in an ambiguous, research-paced environment
• Deep alignment with OpenAI's mission on safe and beneficial AI

Benefits & Work Conditions

• $48–$65/hr with equity and performance-based compensation
• Hybrid schedule based in San Francisco headquarters
• Access to OpenAI's internal research and model infrastructure
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision benefits
• Generous parental leave and mental health support

Who Should Apply

Exceptionally strong recent graduates who want to work on frontier AI systems, are comfortable with uncertainty, and bring both rigorous engineering and intellectual curiosity to their work. OpenAI hires bar-raisingly and moves fast.

About the Company

OpenAI is the organization behind GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper, Codex, and Sora. Its mission is the responsible development of AI for the long-term benefit of humanity — and its teams are building the most capable AI systems available anywhere in the world.

How to Apply

Apply at openai.com/careers. The process includes technical phone screens, coding assessments, and a research or system design interview tailored to the team you are interviewing for.