OpenAI· Applied AI Engineering· San Francisco
Engineering Manager, Identity Infrastructure
Comp$293K – $385K
Classified Tasks (14)
Automate 0%Augment 29%Human-Only 71%
Augment (4)
AI assists, human decides
Guide the architecture of distributed systems operating at massive scale with high requirements for reliability, privacy, and performance
technical
Run reliable operations for mission-critical identity systems and maintain strong operational excellence
operational
Own and improve request validation at the edge for logged-in users to deliver extremely high reliability and fast validation under high throughput
technical
Oversee systems that enable secure access to user data, improving scalability, reliability, and access patterns for internal consumers across the company
operational
Human-Only (10)
Requires human judgment
Lead a team that owns foundational identity services and ensure their reliability, security, and performance under extreme load
leadership
Set technical and organizational direction for the identity infrastructure team
leadership
Build, lead, and develop a high-performing engineering team
leadership
Coach and mentor engineers and senior technical leads to increase their impact and support their growth
leadership
Define and own the technical strategy, roadmap, and execution for OpenAI’s core identity systems
leadership
Partner closely with Product and Infrastructure teams to support new product needs and uphold high system standards
communication
Partner with engineering and security teams to strengthen the identity platform that enables trusted access to OpenAI products
communication
Ensure the team operates effectively, maintains strong engineering rigor, and consistently delivers against ambitious goals
leadership
Establish processes and a culture that enable fast learning, high trust, and responsible innovation
leadership
Lead the team responsible for the authentication stack and token exchange infrastructure, ensuring high availability, strong security posture, and low-latency performance
leadership
Job description
Engineering Manager, Identity Infrastructure | OpenAI Careers ## Engineering Manager, Identity Infrastructure Applied AI Engineering - San Francisco Apply now(opens in a new window) ## **About the Team** Identity is the foundation of trust in an AI-powered world. As people build a rich personal and organizational context in ChatGPT, they need systems that protect it, remember it, and let them share it securely across apps and agents. Without strong identity, context stays locked away or exposed. With it, AI becomes safe, personal, and truly useful, empowering users while keeping control firmly in their hands. Our team builds the trusted OpenAI account layer that connects people, enterprises, developers, and agents to OpenAI apps and the broader AI ecosystem. Our systems are the front door to OpenAI—held to an exceptionally high bar for availability, security, and latency—and are depended on by many internal teams. ## **About the Role** As an Engineering Manager, Identity Infrastructure, you will lead a team owning foundational identity services that must be highly reliable, secure, and fast under extreme load. You’ll set direction, grow and support the team, and partner closely across engineering and security to strengthen the platform that enables trusted access to OpenAI products. We’re looking for people who combine strong infrastructure depth with people leadership—someone who can guide technical strategy, run reliable operations, and build a high-performing team delivering mission-critical systems. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. ## **What You’ll Do:** * Build, lead, and develop a high-performing engineering team. Coach and mentor engineers and senior technical leads to increase their impact and support their growth. * Define and own the technical strategy, roadmap, and execution for OpenAI’s core identity systems. * Guide the architecture of distributed systems operating at massive scale, with high requirements for reliability, privacy, and performance. * Partner closely with Product and Infrastructure teams to support new product needs and uphold high system standards. * Ensure the team operates effectively, maintains strong engineering rigor, and consistently delivers against ambitious goals. * Establish processes and a culture that enable fast learning, high trust, and responsible innovation. * Lead the team responsible for the authentication stack and token exchange infrastructure, ensuring high availability, strong security posture, and low-latency performance. * Own and improve request validation at the edge for logged-in users, delivering extremely high reliability and fast validation under high throughput. * Oversee systems that enable secure access to user data, improving scalability, reliability, and access patterns for internal consumers across the company. ## **You might thrive in this role if you:** * Have 3+ years of experience managing high-performance engineering teams in fast-paced, rapidly shifting environments. * Have 10+ years of experience building, scaling, and operating distributed systems at large scale. * Care deeply about people leadership, coaching, and helping engineers achieve peak performance. * Communicate clearly, think holistically, and make decisions grounded in both user needs and long-term sustainability. * Have experience managing an infrastructure team and are effective at hiring, coaching, and developing engineers while maintaining strong operational excellence. * Have deep experience building and operating high-scale backend systems, with a track record of improving reliability, latency, and security in production. * Bring broad infrastructure expertise across the stack—from hardware and cluster management to services and storage layers. **About OpenAI** OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company