Hybrid Performance Modeling Engineer

at OpenAI

• Job title: Performance Modeling Engineer
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Mid level, Senior
• Salary: $266,000 - $445,000 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Location requirements: Hybrid, San Francisco, United States

About the role

• Performance Modeling Engineer at OpenAI developing modeling tools to evaluate AI system performance and inform architectural decisions. Collaborating with cross-functional teams to improve system design.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain performance modeling tools and frameworks.
• Build models to evaluate system behavior across: compute, memory, and interconnect subsystems
• distributed system scaling and bottlenecks.
• Run simulations and analytical models to support architectural tradeoff analysis.
• Collaborate with performance modeling lead and system architects to answer forward-looking design questions.
• Analyze and interpret modeling outputs, translating results into actionable insights.
• Validate models against real system measurements and workload behavior.
• Contribute to improving modeling fidelity, usability, and scalability.

Requirements

• Strong software engineering or modeling background (e.g., simulation, systems modeling, or performance analysis).
• Familiarity with system architecture fundamentals (compute, memory, networking).
• Experience with programming and building technical tools or frameworks.
• Ability to reason about performance bottlenecks and scaling behavior.
• Strong analytical skills and comfort working with quantitative models.
• Ability to collaborate across teams and learn new system domains quickly.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
• Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
• 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)
• Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
• 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)
• Mental health and wellness support
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
• Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth
• Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
• Relocation support for eligible employees
• Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.