Software Engineer, Kernel Performance & AI Tooling
About the Team OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops silicon and system-level solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. The team is responsible for building the next generation of AI-native silicon while working closely with software and research partners to co-design hardware tightly integr
What this role actually needs.
About the Team OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops silicon and system-level solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. The team is responsible for building the next generation of AI-native silicon while working closely with software and research partners to co-design hardware tightly integr Responsibilities: - Build developer tooling and workflows that make kernel development and performance optimization faster, more scalable, and easier to debug, integrate, and deploy. - Develop observability, diagnostics, and validation infrastructure that makes AI-assisted optimization systems more interpretable, reliable, and effective. - Optimize production kernels end to end by formulating optimization problems, running search loops, analyzing bottlenecks, debugging generated implementations, and landing improvements into production. - Design abstractions, interfaces, and automation systems that accelerate kernel optimization, correctness validation, and hardware-software co-design. - Improve AI-assisted optimization systems for specialized tasks through better datasets, evaluations, benchmarking, and research infrastructure. - Partner across research and engineering teams to turn new ideas into practical systems spanning production needs and long-term infrastructure strategy. Company context: OpenAI builds frontier AI systems, research infrastructure, and applied products for developers, enterprises, and global users.
Day-to-day expectations
OpenAI lists these responsibilities for the Software Engineer, Kernel Performance & AI Tooling role.
- Build developer tooling and workflows that make kernel development and performance optimization faster, more scalable, and easier to debug, integrate, and deploy.
- Develop observability, diagnostics, and validation infrastructure that makes AI-assisted optimization systems more interpretable, reliable, and effective.
- Optimize production kernels end to end by formulating optimization problems, running search loops, analyzing bottlenecks, debugging generated implementations, and landing improvements into production.
- Design abstractions, interfaces, and automation systems that accelerate kernel optimization, correctness validation, and hardware-software co-design.
- Improve AI-assisted optimization systems for specialized tasks through better datasets, evaluations, benchmarking, and research infrastructure.
- Partner across research and engineering teams to turn new ideas into practical systems spanning production needs and long-term infrastructure strategy.
Why this listing is more than a copied job post.
Software Engineer, Kernel Performance & AI Tooling is framed against UpJobz source checks, country scope, compensation visibility, and work-authorization signals so candidates can make a faster go/no-go decision.
United States tech market
United States roles on UpJobz are filtered for high-tech relevance, source freshness, and actionable employer detail before they are allowed into SEO surfaces.
Compensation read
$266K - $445K is visible before the click, so candidates can compare the role against local market expectations before applying.
Work authorization read
Current extracted signal: United States residents. UpJobz treats this as a search signal, not legal advice, and links visa-sensitive roles back to the relevant visa hub where possible.
Location read
Hybrid roles in San Francisco should be compared against commute, local salary bands, and nearby employer demand.
Browse similar jobs
Turn this listing into an application plan.
This is the first pass at the premium UpJobz layer: a fast brief that helps serious applicants move with more clarity.
Next moves
- Tailor your resume around ai and research instead of sending a generic application.
- Use the first two bullets of your application to connect your background directly to software engineer, kernel performance & ai tooling is a high-signal hybrid role in san francisco, and it is most realistic for united states residents.
- Open the role quickly if it fits and bookmark three similar jobs before you leave the page.
Interview themes
Watchouts
- $266K - $445K is visible, so calibrate your application around the posted range.
- Use united states residents as part of your positioning so the recruiter does not have to infer it.
- Show concrete examples of succeeding in hybrid environments.
Keywords to match against your background
Use these terms to decide whether your resume, portfolio, and recent projects line up with the role.
Apply through the employer source
Open the source listing from jobs.ashbyhq.com, confirm the role is still active, then apply on the employer or ATS page.
Source: jobs.ashbyhq.com · Source ID: e9627fa6-ac76-4899-9a93-9251419e61a0 · Confidence: 97/100 · Last checked: May 7, 2026
How UpJobz verifies job sourcesContinue browsing tech jobs