Hardware System Design Electrical Engineer

About the Team
The Electrical Engineering team is responsible for architecting, designing, and validating the custom electronics that enable OpenAI's next-generation AI systems. We partner closely with mechanical, software, and system engineering teams to deliver reliable, high-performance hardware at scale.

About the Role
As a Senior Electrical Engineer, you will lead the design and development of complex board- and system-level hardware, taking ideas from architecture through prototyping and into production. You'll own critical design efforts, guide system integration, and set the technical direction for how electrical systems are architected and validated.

We're looking for people who thrive at the intersection of innovation and execution, enjoy tackling deep technical challenges, and can balance hands-on lab work with system-level strategy. You'll also mentor junior engineers and help shape best practices across the team.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model with an expectation of being onsite four days per week, and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Architect and own board- and system-level designs, from concept through production

• Drive schematic design, PCB layout, bring-up, and validation for complex systems

• Define and implement design practices around power delivery, high-speed signaling, and EMI/EMC compliance

• Lead lab bring-up and debug efforts, setting the strategy for validation and issue resolution

• Collaborate with cross-functional partners (mechanical, software, manufacturing) to deliver integrated hardware solutions

• Provide technical leadership in design reviews and across program milestones

• Mentor and support junior engineers to grow technical depth across the team

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have extensive experience designing, building, and shipping electronics in complex systems (e.g., consumer hardware, robotics, AI systems)

• Are deeply knowledgeable in electrical engineering fundamentals, including high-speed digital, power electronics, and system integration

• Are proficient with schematic capture and PCB design tools, and experienced leading large, complex board designs

• Bring expertise in lab validation, debug, and root-cause analysis using advanced test equipment

• Have a track record of solving system-level challenges across SI, PI, and EMI domains

• Enjoy mentoring engineers and elevating team-wide technical standards

• Are motivated by building real, high-impact hardware products

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.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act. 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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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Compensation Range: $250K - $380K