Hardware Engineer, Test

Openai
San Francisco, CA
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

Hardware testing professionals with deep domain knowledge and hands-on experience in datacenter applications will find this role highly aligned with advanced AI hardware development in San Francisco.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 10+ years of datacenter hardware testing experience and a background in system-level validation
    — “at least 10 years of industry experience, including experience testing or supporting hardware design teams for datacenter applications
  • Individuals skilled in high-speed signal integrity testing and SerDes technology
    — “High-speed links, with a focus on SerDes (Serializer/Deserializer) technology to assess signal integrity, error rates, and overall link performance.
  • Professionals who can manage complex lab environments and collaborate across multidisciplinary teams
    — “the ability to collaborate across multiple teams to ensure efficient lab operations

Things to consider

  • This role requires compliance with U.S. export control laws and may have legal status implications
    — “To comply with U.S. export control laws and regulations, candidates for this role may need to meet certain legal status requirements
  • Candidates must be prepared to handle confidential and proprietary information
    — “maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with oscilloscopes, thermal test chambers, and high-speed interconnects in your resume
    — “hands-on experience with oscilloscopes, power supplies, analyzers, and other test instruments
  • Demonstrate your ability to create detailed test methodologies and automation scripts
    — “designing, implementing, and executing comprehensive test plans that ensure the reliability, performance, and scalability of our supercomputing hardware systems
  • Emphasize your track record in cross-functional collaboration and issue resolution
    — “collaborate with hardware design, manufacturing, firmware teams and vendors to identify, analyze, and resolve issues affecting hardware
  • Showcase your expertise in protocol interfaces like SPI, I2C, DDRx, and Ethernet compliance
    — “experience characterizing and verifying compliance of Datacenter Ethernet interfaces
  • Demonstrate your analytical skills in interpreting complex test data and drawing actionable insights
    — “Excellent analytical skills to diagnose hardware issues, troubleshoot problems, and propose solutions
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • designing comprehensive test plans
  • collaborating with hardware design teams
  • developing automation scripts
Typical background
10+ years of hardware testing and validation experience

Skills & requirements

Required

Hardware TestingSystem TestingProtocol ComplianceAutomation Scripting

Preferred

Cadence Allegro ExperienceHigh-speed Electrical Testing

Stack & domain

Hardware TestingSystem TestingPythonBashCommunicationTeamworkHardware EngineeringAI

About the role

Original posting from Openai via Ashby

About the Team:

OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops AI-native silicon and system-level solutions for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. Building on efforts like Jalapeño, the team is developing future generations of AI-native silicon and tightly integrated systems to power the next generation of frontier models. By co-designing chips, systems, tools, and methodologies, the team helps deliver faster, more efficient, and production-ready hardware for OpenAI’s supercomputing platform.

In this role you will:

  • As a Hardware Test Engineer, you will work on Machine Learning/AI hardware system projects to craft the solutions for current and future data center deployments.
  • You will bring a strong understanding of hardware system testing, excellent project management skills, and the ability to collaborate across multiple teams to ensure efficient lab operations.
  • You will be responsible for designing, implementing, and executing comprehensive test plans that ensure the reliability, performance, and scalability of our supercomputing hardware systems. You will develop detailed test plans and methodologies tailored to hardware components, including processors, memory modules, custom accelerators and interconnects.
  • You will collaborate with hardware design, manufacturing, firmware teams and vendors to identify, analyze, and resolve issues affecting hardware, power, thermal and high-speed interconnects. You will perform in-depth debugging on the hardware system
  • Excellent analytical skills to diagnose hardware issues, troubleshoot problems, and propose solutions. Ability to interpret complex test data, identify trends, and draw meaningful conclusions.
  • High-speed links, with a focus on SerDes (Serializer/Deserializer) technology to assess signal integrity, error rates, and overall link performance.
  • You will collaborate with the lab manager to maintain the equipment and hardware systems, including oscilloscopes, thermal test chambers, liquid cooling systems, and other measurement devices.
  • You will utilize advanced diagnostic and measurement tools to capture performance metrics and analyze system behavior. You will develop and maintain automation scripts to streamline testing processes. Proficiency in Python, Bash and test automation frameworks to develop automated test scripts is highly desired.
  • Effective communication to clearly document test results, report defects, and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

You might thrive in this role if you:

  • Have at least 10 years of industry experience, including experience testing or supporting hardware design teams for datacenter applications
  • Proven experience in hardware testing and validation, with hands-on experience with oscilloscopes, power supplies, analyzers, and other test instruments.
  • Have a strong understanding of electrical, power and thermal testing methodologies.
  • Have expertise with protocol of common interfaces such as SPI, I2C, USB, DDRx, and have experience characterizing and verifying compliance of Datacenter Ethernet interfaces.
  • Hands-on experience with high-speed electrical and thermal test equipment such as oscilloscopes, VNA, TDR, thermal cameras, heat sinks, and test chambers.
  • Experience in using Cadence Allegro and automation / scripting.
  • Have a strong bias toward action, and won’t take no for an answer.
  • Have experience and good knowledge of system testing from xPUs, board, rack level to data center level
  • Have a strong intrinsic desire to learn and fill in missing skills; and an equally strong talent for sharing that information clearly and concisely with others.
  • Are comfortable with ambiguity and rapidly changing conditions.
  • Have excellent analytical, problem-solving, and troubleshooting skills.

To comply with U.S. export control laws and regulations, candidates for this role may need to meet certain legal status requirements as provided in those laws and regulations.

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, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form https://form.asana.com/?d=57018692298241&k=5MqR40fZd7jlxVUh5J-UeA. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link https://form.asana.com/?k=bQ7w9h3iexRlicUdWRiwvg&d=57018692298241.

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy https://cdn.openai.com/policies/global-employee-and-contractor-privacy-policy.pdf

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Source: Openai careers (Ashby)

Similar roles