Research Engineer / Machine Learning Engineer

OpenAI

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Research Services 👥 201 employees 📍 San Francisco, CA, US Est. 2015

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with…

Job Overview

OpenAI is at the forefront of artificial intelligence, driving innovation and shaping the future with cutting-edge research. Our mission is to ensure that AI's benefits reach everyone. We are looking for visionary Research Engineers to join our Applied Voice Team, where you'll conduct groundbreaking research on speech models and transform it into real-world applications that can change industries, enhance human creativity, and solve complex problems.

About the Role

As a Research Engineer in OpenAI's Applied Voice Team, you will have the opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds in AI. You'll design and build state-of-the-art speech models (speech-to-speech, transcribing, text to speech, etc.) and help turn research breakthroughs into tangible OpenAI speech products. If you're excited about making AI technology accessible and impactful, this role is your chance to make a significant mark.

Some of our recent work:

• Introducing gpt-realtime
• Demo - gpt-realtime-1.5
• ASR, TTS
• May 2026 - Advancing voice intelligence with new models in the API

In this role, you will:

• Innovate and Build: Design and build advanced machine learning models that solve real-world problems. Bring OpenAI's research from concept to implementation, creating AI-driven applications with a direct impact.
• Collaborate with the Best: Work closely with software engineers, product managers and forward deployed engineers to understand complex business challenges, address customer concerns and deliver AI-powered solutions. Be part of a dynamic team where ideas flow freely and creativity thrives.
• Optimize and Scale: Implement scalable data pipelines, optimize models for performance and accuracy, and ensure they are production-ready. Contribute to projects that require cutting-edge technology and innovative approaches.
• Learn and Lead: Stay ahead of the curve by engaging with the latest developments in machine learning and AI. Take part in code reviews, share knowledge, and lead by example to maintain high-quality engineering practices.
• Make a Difference: Monitor and maintain deployed models to ensure they continue delivering value. Your work will directly influence how AI benefits individuals, businesses, and society at large.

Required Qualifications

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Master's/ PhD degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field.
• 2+ years of professional engineering experience (excluding internships) in relevant roles at tech and product-driven companies.
• Demonstrated experience in deep learning and transformers models
• Proficiency in frameworks like PyTorch or Tensorflow
• Strong foundation in data structures, algorithms, and software engineering principles.
• Are familiar with methods of training and fine-tuning large language models, such as distillation, supervised fine-tuning, and policy optimization
• Experience with speech models is a plus.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills, with a proactive approach to challenges.
• Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams.
• Ability to move fast in an environment where things are sometimes loosely defined and may have competing priorities or deadlines
• Enjoy owning the problems end-to-end, and are willing to pick up whatever knowledge you're missing to get the job done.

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, sex...