Analyze and quantify architectural tradeoffs across compute, memory, networking, storage, and system topology.
Develop performance models to guide decisions on
scale-up vs. scale-out architectures
interconnect and network design
memory hierarchy and system balance.
Translate modeling outputs into clear recommendations for internal teams and external hardware vendors.
Influence reference designs and vendor roadmaps through data-driven insights.
Partner closely with machine learning, systems, and hardware teams to understand workload characteristics and requirements.
Lead and grow a small team (2–3 engineers), setting technical direction and maintaining high standards for modeling rigor.
Continuously improve modeling fidelity by validating against real system behavior and measurements.
Qualifications
Have experience owning or building performance modeling frameworks used to drive real system design decisions.
Have deep knowledge of AI/ML workloads, including training and/or inference at scale.
Understand system-level tradeoffs across compute, memory, and networking in large-scale distributed systems.
Are comfortable working across abstraction layers—from workload behavior to hardware implementation.
Have experience using modeling (analytical or simulation) to inform architectural decisions.
Can operate in ambiguous problem spaces and turn open-ended questions into structured analysis.
Communicate clearly and influence both internal teams and external partners.
Preferred Skills
Experience working with hardware vendors (ODM/JDM, silicon, networking).
Background in data center infrastructure or hyperscale systems.
Familiarity with accelerators (GPUs/ASICs) and interconnects (e.g., NVLink, InfiniBand, Ethernet).
Experience influencing hardware roadmaps or reference architectures.
Prior experience leading or mentoring engineers.
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.
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