Software Engineer, Backend – Sora
Location
San Francisco; New York City
Employment Type
Full time
Department
Research
Compensation
- $230K – $255K • Offers Equity
The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. If the role is non-exempt, overtime pay will be provided consistent with applicable laws. In addition to the salary range listed above, total compensation also includes generous equity, performance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees, and the following benefits.
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Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
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Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
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401(k) retirement plan with employer match
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Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)
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Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
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13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)
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Mental health and wellness support
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Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
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Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth
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Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
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Relocation support for eligible employees
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Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.
More details about our benefits are available to candidates during the hiring process.
This role is at-will and OpenAI reserves the right to modify base pay and other compensation components at any time based on individual performance, team or company results, or market conditions.
About the Team
The Sora team is pioneering multimodal capabilities for OpenAI’s foundation models. We’re a hybrid research and product team focused on integrating multimodal functionalities into our AI products, ensuring they are reliable, user-friendly, and aligned with our mission of broad societal benefit.
About the Role
We’re looking for experienced, problem-solving engineers to build new products and scale our systems. Our success depends on our ability to quickly iterate on products while also ensuring that they are performant and reliable.
You’ll work in a deeply iterative, collaborative, fast-paced environment to bring our technology to millions of users around the world, and ensure it’s delivered with safety and reliability in mind.
As we explore new frontiers in video-enabled AI and other modalities, you will help define our product strategy and build the foundations for these initiatives. We value engineers who take initiative, demonstrate strong product instincts, and maintain a user-centric focus in their work.
In this role, you will:
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Collaborate with cross-functional teams to design, build, and iterate on innovative video product features.
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Translate user needs and research insights into scalable product solutions.
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Work with researchers to integrate advanced video capabilities into our core offerings.
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Shape the technical roadmap and product strategy for our video initiatives.
You might thrive in this role if you:
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Have 6+ years of industry experience in product engineering, with a proven record of shipping impactful, user-focused products.
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Excel in environments with ambiguity and rapid change, turning complex requirements into practical, elegant solutions.
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Possess a proactive mindset with the ability to quickly learn new technologies and share your insights with your team.
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Bonus: Have experience building or supporting video infrastructure, which will be valuable as our product scales.
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.
