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OpenAI Hiring Research Engineers & Research Scientists (RL/Reasoning) in San Francisco | Earn US$295,000–445,000 + Equity

Category
Jobs
Posted
September 20, 2026
Region
Global
Sector
Education & Research
Work mode
Hybrid
Apply via
openai.com

Overview

OpenAI is hiring a Research Engineer or Research Scientist for its RL and Reasoning team in San Francisco, California. The team advances OpenAI's reinforcement learning and reasoning capabilities and focuses on building intelligent, aligned and scalable generative models. The job involves designing, implementing and evaluating reinforcement learning algorithms and contributing to next-generation AI reasoning systems, combining research, engineering, experimentation and deployment.

What you get

Compensation is US$295,000 to US$445,000 plus equity, with the final offer depending on experience, technical expertise and role alignment. The work model is hybrid, with three days a week in the office, and relocation assistance is available.

Who can apply

Applicants should have a strong background in machine learning, reinforcement learning or closely related fields. The team looks for people with experience conducting reinforcement learning research, excellent programming and software engineering skills, a deep understanding of machine learning theory and applications, the ability to prototype and iterate quickly, strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, confidence working in large ML infrastructure and codebases, and a collaborative style with ownership of technical projects.

Requirements

Day-to-day work includes developing reinforcement learning methods for reasoning models, building and improving large-scale machine learning systems, designing controlled experiments to evaluate model performance, debugging and optimising complex ML codebases, iterating quickly between research ideas and production-quality implementations, and working with researchers and engineers to deploy systems at scale. The role stresses rigorous experimentation and trustworthy scientific conclusions.

How to apply

Applicants should prepare a CV that highlights research, publications, machine learning experience and software engineering skills, and submit it through OpenAI's careers portal. No closing date has been announced.

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