Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure Security

📋 Description

• • OpenAI is at the forefront of artificial general intelligence, and at the core of our mission to ensure AI benefits all of humanity lies a robust security infrastructure. The Security team is instrumental in safeguarding OpenAI’s cutting-edge technology, its people, and its groundbreaking products. We operate with a blend of technical innovation in our development and an operational rigor in our execution, providing comprehensive support to all research and product initiatives. Our team is guided by core tenets: prioritizing impact to achieve the greatest good, enabling our researchers to push the boundaries of AI, proactively preparing for the security implications of future transformative technologies, and fostering a pervasive security-aware culture across the entire organization. This Principal Security Engineer role is pivotal in upholding these principles by fortifying the very foundations upon which our AI advancements are built.
• • As a Principal Security Engineer on the Infrastructure Security (InfraSec) team, you will be entrusted with the critical responsibility of protecting the bedrock of OpenAI’s research and production environments. This encompasses a vast and complex landscape, including our immense GPU supercomputing clusters, our sophisticated multi-cloud infrastructure, our secure datacenters, the intricate networking fabric, expansive storage solutions, and the vital services that power our frontier AI models. Your daily responsibilities will involve a deep dive into securing every layer of this ecosystem. This includes everything from the fundamental bare-metal hardware and its firmware, to the orchestration layers like Kubernetes and service meshes, extending to the secure management of data storage and the stringent access pathways required for highly sensitive model weights and invaluable user data. You will be expected to take ownership of end-to-end security outcomes for one or more of these critical infrastructure domains. This ownership extends beyond immediate fixes to encompass multi-quarter strategy development, detailed roadmap planning, and the diligent execution of these plans. You will be instrumental in designing and constructing robust security controls that span diverse technological layers. This includes, but is not limited to, securing physical hardware, firmware/BMC configurations, operating systems, Kubernetes clusters, network perimeters, and the continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. The objective is to build defenses capable of withstanding sophisticated adversaries and mitigating insider threats. A significant part of your role will involve leading complex, cross-functional programs. These initiatives will focus on deploying critical security enhancements and implementing control changes across our broad-scale infrastructure. This requires a delicate balance, ensuring that our security guarantees are uncompromised while maintaining the high levels of reliability and operational velocity that our research and products demand. You will adopt a generalist approach to building security controls, leveraging a dynamic mix of specialized security expertise and broad technical skillsets to effectively adapt to the ever-evolving landscape of security challenges. Furthermore, you will play a leading role in conducting threat modeling exercises and design reviews for all major infrastructure changes. This proactive approach ensures that strong security foundations are embedded from the outset and that operational excellence is maintained throughout the lifecycle of our systems. Your leadership will also extend to mentoring and elevating the skills of engineers within the InfraSec team and across partner organizations. By providing guidance, conducting thorough reviews, and demonstrating technical leadership, you will significantly contribute to cultivating and strengthening our overall security culture.
• • The InfraSec team is a critical component of OpenAI’s broader Security organization, which is dedicated to ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. We are a group of highly technical individuals who are passionate about building secure systems and enabling the groundbreaking work happening at OpenAI. Our team operates with a strong sense of ownership and a commitment to operational excellence, understanding that the security of our infrastructure directly impacts the safety and success of our AI research and deployment. We are a collaborative group, working closely with research, engineering, and product teams to integrate security seamlessly into their workflows and architectures. Our environment fosters continuous learning and encourages proactive engagement with emerging threats and technologies.
• • In this role, you will have the unparalleled opportunity to shape the security posture of some of the most advanced AI infrastructure in the world. You will gain deep, hands-on experience with frontier AI technologies and their unique security challenges. You will develop and implement strategies that directly impact the safety and reliability of systems powering potentially world-changing AI models. This position offers significant professional growth, allowing you to hone your leadership skills, expand your technical expertise across a wide array of infrastructure domains, and contribute meaningfully to OpenAI's mission. You will be at the forefront of defining and implementing security best practices for the next generation of AI, making a tangible impact on the future of technology and its responsible deployment.