Full-Stack Software Engineer, Frontier Exploration
Description
OpenAI Labs explores the edges of what’s possible with AI. We start from the latest breakthroughs – or overlooked research with untapped potential – and expand their capabilities by prototyping entirely new ways for people to benefit from AI.
About the Role
As a Full-Stack Software Engineer on the Labs team, you will create new ways for people to interact with AI.
Your work will begin as rapid internal experiments: prototypes built to explore surprising capabilities or novel interfaces. Some will spark entirely new products or research directions, shaping how millions of people experience AI. Across projects, you’ll ship these ideas internally, learn from how people use them, and – if they prove promising – hand them off to product teams to take forward before moving on to the next frontier.
Sometimes you’ll start by playing with a researcher’s early demo, identify emerging behaviors, and push on them in collaboration with researchers. Other times, you’ll start from a capability that hasn’t yet been fully explored and design a novel interface around it.
We’re looking for creative people who love to tinker and explore, chasing sparks of magic and shaping them into experiences that help the world go further and discover new possibilities.
Location
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.
In this role, you will:
Explore emerging capabilities and collaborate with researchers to uncover surprising new behaviors – whether from the model itself or from how people respond – and push their limits through creative experimentation.
Design and prototype new interfaces and interaction patterns that rethink how people experience AI, making powerful capabilities feel intuitive, delightful, and inspiring.
Bring ideas to life quickly, turning concepts into working demos – and evolving those prototypes into robust, testable experiences ready for real-world feedback.
Ship early, learn from real usage, and iterate fast – refining ideas based on how people actually use them.
Hand off the most promising prototypes to product teams to scale before moving on to the next frontier.
Qualifications
Have demonstrated experience building and shipping full-stack applications, from intuitive interfaces to reliable backend systems.
Build things for fun and care deeply about craft: curiosity drives you, and creating is how you explore ideas.
Are energized by ambiguity and excited to turn novel capabilities into tangible, working experiences.
Have a refined product taste and intuition for what great interactions should feel like.
Care about how ideas work in people’s hands and evolve through real use.
Value iteration as much as invention; refining is part of the creative process.