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Engineering Manager, Chatgpt Search Infrastructure

openai

OnSite San Francisco
Engineering AI Uncategorized

Job Score

90 pts
On-site model (+70) Engineering (+10) AI (+10)

About the Team

The ChatGPT Search Infrastructure team builds the foundational systems that power search experiences across ChatGPT. We develop the infrastructure that connects models with search systems and other sources of real-time information, enabling ChatGPT to deliver timely, relevant, and trustworthy answers to users around the world.

Our work sits at the intersection of product engineering, AI, and large-scale infrastructure. We build shared platforms and abstractions that enable product teams to independently develop, evaluate, and launch new search-powered experiences. These platforms provide the guardrails, testing capabilities, observability, and rollout controls needed to prevent reliability, scalability, quality, and latency regressions while supporting rapid product iteration.

The team partners closely with:

  • Post-Training on model launches, experimentation, and prompt optimization

  • Search product verticals on new user experiences

  • Inference on GPU efficiencies

  • Indexing and Retrieval on the systems that identify and deliver relevant information

  • Capacity/Fleet team to ensure optimal regionalized provisioning of GPUs and CPUs

About the Role

We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead the team responsible for ChatGPT’s Search Infrastructure.

You will set the technical and organizational direction for the systems that bring search capabilities into ChatGPT. You will guide architectural decisions across search orchestration, model and prompt integration, serving infrastructure, experimentation, observability, evaluation, and product integrations. You will balance immediate launch and product needs with the long-term reliability, scalability, latency, and maintainability of the platform.

A central responsibility of this role is creating leverage for Search product verticals. You will lead the development of extensible platforms that allow those teams to independently build, test, and launch features without requiring ongoing involvement from the core infrastructure team. These platforms must include strong interfaces and automated guardrails that enable fast iteration while protecting the reliability, scalability, latency, and quality of ChatGPT Search.

This role requires technical depth across the full Search stack and the ability to understand and influence systems owned by partner teams. You will be expected to develop a coherent technical direction across model behavior, inference, search orchestration, indexing, retrieval, experimentation, and infrastructure—even when execution spans multiple organizational boundaries.

You will lead multiple complex workstreams, empower experienced engineers to own major technical areas, and partner with product, research, Post-Training, Search Quality, Inference, Indexing, Retrieval, and infrastructure teams to translate emerging model and search capabilities into reliable experiences operating at global scale.

In this role, you will:

  • Define and drive the technical strategy, architecture, and roadmap for ChatGPT Search Infrastructure, spanning search orchestration, APIs, model and prompt integration, serving, experimentation, evaluation, observability, and product integrations.

  • Lead and develop a team of experienced engineers, create meaningful ownership opportunities, and foster an inclusive, high-trust culture with clear accountability and high standards.

  • Partner with Post-Training on model launches, A/B experiments, search-behavior evaluation, and prompt optimization, translating model improvements into production-ready product experiences.

  • Build reusable platforms that enable Search product vertical teams to independently implement, test, and launch features, with automated guardrails that protect reliability, scalability, quality, and latency.

  • Partner with Inference, Indexing, and Retrieval teams to evolve the end-to-end Search architecture, adapt serving optimizations, and improve product outcomes across the stack.

  • Define and uphold service objectives of at least 99.9% availability, sub-second latency where required by the user experience, and the scalability needed to support ChatGPT’s continued growth.

  • Establish strong engineering practices across system design, testability, observability, experimentation, capacity planning, rollout safety, operational readiness, and incident prevention.

  • Independently lead multiple complex workstreams, remove technical and organizational bottlenecks, and build alignment across product, research, and infrastructure teams in ambiguous and rapidly changing environments.

You might thrive in this role if you:

  • Have experience managing senior engineers and leading teams responsible for complex, high-scale infrastructure, online serving, or distributed systems.

  • Bring significant technical depth in backend infrastructure, platform engineering, APIs, low-latency serving, experimentation platforms, or AI-powered product development.

  • Understand how models, prompts, inference systems, search orchestration, indexing, retrieval, and infrastructure work together to deliver an end-to-end user experience.

  • Have partnered with research or Post-Training teams to launch models, run controlled experiments, evaluate model behavior, or optimize prompts in production.

  • Have built shared platforms that allow other engineering teams to independently develop and launch features within well-defined reliability, scalability, quality, and performance guardrails.

  • Have shaped the architecture of systems with demanding availability, latency, and scale requirements, with testability, observability, safe rollout, and operational excellence built in from the outset.

  • Can move comfortably between technical depth, product strategy, organizational leadership, and people management while exercising strong judgment in ambiguous environments.

  • Build strong cross-functional partnerships, empower experienced engineers to lead, and care deeply about developing people and creating an inclusive, sustainable team culture.

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.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy

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.

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About Engineering

Software Engineering goes beyond traditional development, focusing on scalability, performance, and system architecture. Software engineers are responsible for designing infrastructures that support millions of simultaneous users.

Skills include microservices architecture, DevOps, cloud computing, application security, and performance optimization. Knowledge of containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and CI/CD is increasingly required.

Senior software engineers are rare and highly compensated professionals, with opportunities at major global tech companies.

About Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is currently the fastest-growing field in the technology market. The revolution in generative models (GPT, Claude, Gemini) has created massive demand for AI-specialized professionals.

Key areas of practice include Machine Learning Engineering, MLOps, Prompt Engineering, AI Research, and Applied AI. Python, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and LLM knowledge are essential skills.

AI salaries are the highest in the technology sector, with many remote work opportunities at international companies.

Discover Other Areas

Understand the scope of work, key skills, and tools used in different career areas.

About Project Manager

The Project Manager is the professional responsible for planning, executing, and controlling projects end-to-end, ensuring they are delivered on time, within budget, and with the expected quality. With the growing complexity of businesses, project management professionals are fundamental to organizational success.

Key skills include planning and scheduling, scope, cost, risk, quality, and resource management, stakeholder communication, cross-functional team leadership, and use of agile and traditional methodologies. Certifications like PMP, PRINCE2, and Six Sigma are important differentiators.

Project Managers in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban), tools like Jira and MS Project, and can deliver complex projects efficiently. The field offers opportunities from project analyst to head of PMO, with a focus on execution, governance, and business value.

About Product Manager

The Product Manager (PM) is the professional responsible for defining the strategy, vision, and roadmap of a digital product. They work at the intersection of technology, business, and user experience (UX), leading the discovery and delivery of solutions that solve real problems in a viable way for the company.

Key skills include product discovery, data and metrics analysis (AARRR, NPS, LTV), user research, go-to-market strategy, roadmapping, strategic prioritization, and leadership by influence. Tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, Hotjar, Jira, and Notion are fundamental.

Product Managers play a central role in the growth of startups, scale-ups, and large technology companies, with career progression opportunities to Product Leader, Head of Product, and Chief Product Officer (CPO).

About Traffic Manager

The Traffic Manager is the professional responsible for planning, executing, and optimizing paid media campaigns across various digital platforms. With the competitiveness of the digital market, paid traffic professionals are essential for generating qualified leads and maximizing return on advertising investment.

Key skills include campaign management on Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and TikTok Ads, media planning, metrics analysis (ROAS, CPA, CPC, CTR), A/B testing, remarketing, and landing page creation. Tools like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, and automation platforms are essential.

Traffic managers in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master performance marketing, conversion funnel optimization, and scaling strategies. The field offers opportunities from media analyst to head of performance, with a focus on growth, budget efficiency, and return on investment.

About Web3

The Web3 area represents the new phase of the decentralized internet, built on blockchain technology. Web3 professionals create decentralized applications (dApps), interact with smart contracts, manage digital assets (cryptocurrencies and NFTs), and utilize DeFi (Decentralized Finance) protocols, revolutionizing how data, ownership, and finance are managed online.

About Scrum Master

The Scrum Master is the professional responsible for facilitating the adoption of Scrum and agile practices within development teams. They act as servant leaders, removing impediments, promoting continuous improvement, and ensuring Scrum events and ceremonies happen in the best possible way.

Key skills include event facilitation (sprint planning, daily, review, retrospective), backlog management, team coaching, conflict resolution, and agile metrics (velocity, burndown, cycle time). Knowledge of Jira, Trello, Azure DevOps, and frameworks like Kanban, XP, and SAFe is a differentiator.

Scrum Masters in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who can promote team autonomy, create psychologically safe environments, and lead agile transformations at scale. The field offers opportunities from junior scrum master to agile coach, head of agile, and director of agile transformation.

Career Guides

Technology Career Guide

Planning, skills, interviews, and professional growth in IT, Data Science, DevOps, and Product.

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Design Career Guide

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Marketing Career Guide

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Finance Career Guide

Financial market, investments, corporate finance, certifications, and strategies to grow in the financial field.

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Communication Career Guide

Journalism, PR, Corporate Communication, Content Marketing, and Multimedia Production.

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Administration Career Guide

Business Management, HR, Logistics, Consulting, Project Management, and Entrepreneurship.

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Data Career Guide

Data Science, Data Engineering, BI, Machine Learning, and AI. From training to the job market.

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Product Career Guide

Product Management, Product Ownership, Agile, Scrum, and OKRs. From strategy to execution.

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Tech & Remote Glossary

Stop getting lost in interviews and job descriptions

The job market, especially within tech and global companies, has developed its own dialect. Not understanding these acronyms can make you lose valuable opportunities or poorly negotiate your contract. To end this problem, we created the Definitive Glossary for the Remote Professional.

🏢 Work Models & Routine

Async (Asynchronous Work)
A communication model where responses don't need to be immediate. Instead of back-to-back meetings, the team relies on well-structured documents, threads, and messages. It's the gold standard for global companies spanning multiple time zones.
Sync (Synchronous Work)
The opposite of Async. It requires the team to be online and available at the same time for meetings, live chats, and real-time collaboration.
Daily / Stand-up
A quick daily meeting (usually 15 minutes) common in Agile (Scrum) methodologies. The team answers three questions: What did I do yesterday? What will I do today? Are there any blockers?
All-Hands / Town Hall
A company-wide meeting involving all employees. Usually led by the founders (C-Levels) to present results, new goals, and answer team questions.
1:1 (One-on-One)
A recurring individual meeting between a professional and their direct manager. It is used for career alignment, feedback, and problem-solving, not just for project status updates.

💰 Contracts, Benefits & Compensation

PTO (Paid Time Off)
Instead of strict, categorized leave policies, modern US companies usually offer a flexible pool of days (e.g., 20 days of PTO, or even "Unlimited PTO") that you can use for vacations, sick days, or personal matters, while receiving your regular compensation.
Equity / Stock Options
Company ownership. The startup offers you the right to buy shares at a heavily discounted strike price in the future. If the company grows, goes public, or is acquired, these shares can be highly lucrative.
Vesting (Vesting Schedule)
The rule that controls your Equity. It usually lasts 4 years. You don't get all the shares on day one; you "earn" them gradually as you stay with the company. A "1-year Cliff" means you must stay for at least one year to receive your first batch of shares.
RSUs (Restricted Stock Units)
Unlike Stock Options (where you have the right to buy the stock), RSUs are actual shares the company grants you as a bonus or part of your compensation package, following a strict Vesting schedule.
Independent Contractor (1099 / B2B)
The most common international hiring model for global talent working for US companies. You act as a service provider (business-to-business), receiving the gross salary (often six-figure compensation) without standard local payroll tax deductions at the source.

🤖 Recruitment & Hiring Process

ATS (Applicant Tracking System)
The "robot" that reads your resume. Software like Greenhouse, Ashby, and Workday are used to filter candidates by keywords before a human even looks at the document. (Pro tip: this is why your resume must be clean, semantic, and have the right keywords).
JD (Job Description)
The document that lists the responsibilities, technical requirements, and benefits of the open position.
Cultural Fit
The interview stage that evaluates if your core values, communication style, and worldview align with the company's culture. This is the ultimate test of your Soft Skills.
Onboarding
The integration process. It's the period of your first few weeks at the company, where you get your access credentials, learn about the culture, study the internal documentation, and understand how the product works.

🚀 How to use this to your advantage?

The secret isn't just knowing what these acronyms mean, but using them actively. If during an interview for a premium tech role you ask, "How does your PTO policy and Vesting schedule work?", the recruiter will immediately perceive you as a high-level professional, familiar with the global market standards.

The remote job market requires preparation. And having the right vocabulary is the first big step to securing six-figure proposals and standing out among thousands of applicants.

Expert Tip

The New Account Manager Profile: How to Land the Best Remote B2B SaaS Jobs

The Evolution of Account Management: Beyond Relationship Building

If you are aiming for an Account Manager (AM), Key Account Manager (KAM), or Enterprise Account Director role in 2026, it is crucial to understand that the traditional "order-taker" profile focused solely on charisma is a thing of the past. In tech companies, especially within the B2B SaaS (Software as a Service) model, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is higher than ever. Consequently, retaining and expanding the existing customer base are now the primary drivers of profitability.

Recruiters at tech giants and hyper-growth startups are looking for hybrid professionals: individuals with sharp emotional intelligence, but who also possess strong analytical skills to interpret usage data and prevent churn. If your resume does not reflect this duality, you will quickly be filtered out by modern ATS algorithms.

3 Critical Skills to Make Your Resume Stand Out

1. Mastery of Data-Driven Strategies

An elite Account Manager does not wait for the client to complain before taking action. They actively monitor account health. During interviews, you must be able to discuss how you leverage CRM tools (like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive) and Customer Success platforms (like Gainsight or Totango) to identify Upsell and Cross-sell opportunities.

"B2B sales teams that adopt data-driven and AI-backed strategies perform substantially better in customer retention and account expansion."

— Gartner Report on B2B Sales

2. Bridging the Gap Between Client and Engineering (Product Feedback Loop)

You will act as the voice of the customer within the company. The most competitive roles require the AM to translate client business pains into actionable insights for Product Managers (PMs) and Software Engineers. In your portfolio of achievements, always mention how your clients' feedback helped shape the product roadmap, resulting in new features and increased Net Promoter Scores (NPS).

3. Asynchronous Communication and Remote Strategic Consulting

With remote work firmly established globally, traditional in-person business lunches have been replaced by strategic Zoom calls and asynchronous alignments. You need to demonstrate your ability to lead a Quarterly Business Review (QBR) effectively in a remote setting, presenting ROI (Return on Investment) reports that easily justify contract renewals.

Practical Interview Tips

When you reach the interview stage with a VP of Sales or Head of Customer Success, drop the generic speech and bring concrete numbers to the table. Structure your answers using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

  • Focus on Net Revenue Retention (NRR): Do not just state how many accounts you managed; explain how you successfully grew the revenue of those accounts over time.
  • Conflict Resolution: Have a ready-to-tell example of an "at-risk" account that you managed to turn around and save from churning.
  • Onboarding and Adoption: Explain your methodology for ensuring that the client fully adopts and utilizes the software from day one.

The Path to Six-Figure Remote Roles

The US tech market remains highly competitive, with enterprise account roles in startups and scale-ups consistently offering six-figure base salaries plus aggressive OTE (On-Target Earnings). However, simply applying through standard job boards often leads your resume straight into a black hole. To access the "hidden job market" of premium US Remote opportunities, smart networking and utilizing curated tech platforms are absolute requirements.

"The best sales opportunities are not the ones you merely apply for; they are the ones your reputation and network qualify you for in advance."

— Harvard Business Review: The Future of B2B Sales