> AI agents: this is one page of Nextmove’s FDE site, in Markdown. Nextmove is a job board and free career service for forward deployed engineers (FDEs). Each posting is classified from its text, not its title: the kind of work, how much of it is production code, pre-sales weight, time at customer sites, travel, remote arrangement, level and posted base pay. The site also publishes the aggregates: median pay by level, metro, company and kind of work, and which companies started hiring FDEs each week. Every page under https://nextmove.md/fde is served this way; the index of pages is https://nextmove.md/llms.txt. # Software Engineer, Cooperative AI Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/1fe1172380592b97 OpenAI posts a FDE role to build for teams inside the company in San Francisco, CA, at $266,000–$445,000 base, above the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,864 postings with pay. Builds AI-powered knowledge, automation, and agent systems that support OpenAI’s internal teams and global customers, from customer support to integrity and product insights. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) First seen Apr 22, 2026 · open on Ashby as of Nov 8, 2026 **$266,000–$445,000** + equity San Francisco, CA Full-time Builds AI-powered knowledge, automation, and agent systems that support OpenAI’s internal teams and global customers, from customer support to integrity and product insights. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2F1fe1172380592b97&placement=top) - [View posting at OpenAI](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/openai/7613aca3-9dd8-41cd-b114-06ef4de967a9/application) Free. Upload your resume once, see why each FDE role fits, and get introduced only when you say so. ## At a glance ### Posted base pay $266K–$445K Above the median Midpoint $356K · median $190K This job $266K to $445K. Senior FDE postings, 1,864 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $160K to $220K, median $190K. [Compare pay across all OpenAI postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/openai) ### The work Builds for teams inside the company Balance **Mostly building** Project stages 1. Pre-sales (not covered) 2. Proof of concept (not covered) 3. Implementation 4. Operations - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: Both - **Level**: Senior - **Role**: Individual contributor ### What they ask for Experience - **4+ years** professional software engineering experience, excluding internships Background - **Software engineering** ### Do you meet what the posting states? The posting asks for 4+ years. How many do you have? The posting reads as a senior role. What level are you at now? The job is in San Francisco, CA. Could you work there? Which of these have you used in production? Answer each one. Nothing is saved or sent. [What postings ask for, by background →](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths) ## Conditions - **Location**: San Francisco, CA - **Employment type**: Full-time - **Pay**: ## More like this [Paradigm](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/paradigm) ### [Product Engineer, Applied AI](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/3b955e26ed9776cb) San Francisco, CA On-site 3mo ago $250,000–$400,000 [NVIDIA](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/nvidia) ### [Senior AI Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/877b53d305d658a1) Santa Clara, CA New · 5d ago $224,000–$356,500 [Perplexity](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/perplexity) ### [Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Enterprise AI Products)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/a107ab6384fd73e5) San Francisco, CA 4mo ago $220,000–$405,000 - [Other jobs at OpenAI (52)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai) ## The job description from OpenAI **About the Team **The Cooperative AI team is scaling OpenAI with OpenAI. We are building an AI powered knowledge system that evolves and learns as our products, systems and customers evolve. We leverage our state of the art models, technologies, and products (some external, some still in the lab) to assist or completely automate robust operations supporting both internal and external customers. We support OpenAI customers and internal partners globally, powering systems from customer support to integrity to product insights. We are a self-contained multi-disciplinary team, who enjoy a lightning fast feedback loop with customers at scale, some of whom sit just a few pods away. We iterate fast, and engineer for reliable long-term impact. We're constantly looking for the similarities and patterns in different types of work, and focus on building simple primitives, to apply world class knowledge to many domains. The work of this team exemplifies use of OpenAI technologies. We build systems so everyone can see the leverage that is possible with well designed AI-based implementations. We do this by working through internal use cases focused on Customers (specifically knowledge systems, automation systems, and automated agent systems) to prove impact, then we scale. ### About the Role We’re looking for **Software Engineers** across the stack who are passionate about blending production-ready platform architecture with new tech and new paradigms. You’ll push the boundaries of OpenAI’s newest technologies to enable interactions and automations that are not only functional, but delightful. We value proactive, customer-centric engineers who can get the foundational details right (data models, architecture, security) in service of enabling great products. ### IIn this role, you will - Own the development of new products, platform capabilities, and integrations from initial concept through launch and ongoing improvement. - Apply OpenAI’s latest models to knowledge systems, automation workflows, and AI agents. - Build reliable, maintainable software that can scale as our products, customers, and operational needs evolve. - Partner closely with engineers, data scientists, information systems architects, operations teams, and internal customers to understand problems and deliver effective solutions. - Work with product and research teams to share feedback, evaluate real-world performance, and improve how we apply new models. - Identify common patterns across use cases and turn them into reusable capabilities that support multiple teams and domains. ### You might thrive in this role if you have: - 4+ years of professional software engineering experience, excluding internships, at technology or product-driven companies. - Strong programming and software design fundamentals, with depth in areas such as backend, full-stack, product, or platform engineering. - Experience taking software from idea to production and making thoughtful tradeoffs across quality, speed, reliability, and security. - A customer-focused approach and the ability to turn loosely defined problems into practical solutions. - Comfort collaborating across disciplines, navigating ambiguity, and iterating quickly while building toward a long-term vision. - Curiosity about AI/ML and excitement about applying new models to real-world problems; direct AI/ML experience is not required. ### 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. [View posting at OpenAI](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/openai/7613aca3-9dd8-41cd-b114-06ef4de967a9/application) ## About OpenAI Builds frontier AI models and ships them through ChatGPT consumer and enterprise products, Codex, and developer APIs. Late-stage private · 5000+ people ## Similar jobs [Roku](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/roku) ### [Sr. AI Transformation Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/33d5909e360f7f5a) San Jose, CA Hybrid 2mo ago $242,200–$486,000 [Etched](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/etched) ### [Internal Acceleration, Engineer (Production)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/50520a6cf33f35c2) San Jose, CA On-site 3w ago $150,000–$400,000 [Fluidstack](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/fluidstack) ### [Product Engineer, Infrastructure Development & Delivery](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/472338056d765117) San Francisco, CA On-site 5w ago $224,000–$300,000 [Sumeru Equity Partners](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/sumeru-equity-partners) ### [Forward Deployed AI Operating Principal](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/29e4e2500ba4f811) San Mateo, CA On-site 2w ago $320,000–$360,000 [Retell AI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/retell-ai) ### [Founders Initiatives, Technical Ex-Founders](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/1fef50e3f27a227b) Redwood City, CA On-site 5mo ago $180,000–$300,000 - [Compare senior FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/senior) - [Similar jobs in SF Bay Area](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?region=sf-bay-area) - [Similar jobs that build for teams inside the company](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?role=internal-deployment) Hiring at OpenAI and want this page changed or removed? 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