OpenAI FDE
Applied AI Engineer, Startups
- Location San Francisco
- Compensation 211,000 – 278,000 USD / year
- Type FullTime
- Team Go To Market
- Seniority mid
- Posted 2026-06-01
Original posting ↗ You apply on the company site — we never collect applications.
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role details
Partner with startup customers to build AI applications on OpenAI's API, providing technical guidance and support.
Summary generated by AI from the original posting.
Hard requirements to check first
- Clearance:not mentioned in the posting
- Work auth:not mentioned in the posting
- Travel:customer-facing; travel not stated
Skills
PythonJavaScriptOpenAI APIsoftware engineerML engineerstartup environmentfounderfounding engineerGenerative AIAPIopen-source
Excerpt from the original posting
About the team The Applied AI Engineering team is responsible for ensuring the safe and effective deployment of Generative AI applications for developers and startups. We act as a trusted advisor and thought partner for our customers, working to build an effective backlog of GenAI use cases for their industry and drive them to production through strong technical guidance. OpenAI's customers represent a range of diverse backgrounds and maturity, from early-stage startups to late-stage startups. About the Role We are seeking a technically proficient, business-minded Applied AI Engineer to help push the frontier of advanced AI with our strategic startup customers. You'll work with some of the most exciting AI startups in the world, guiding them through ideation, development, delivery, and scaling to accelerate and maximize the value of what they build on our platform. You will have the opportunity to work on the most novel and creative use cases being built on our API, serving as a critical partner in collecting and delivering high-fidelity product and model feedback internally. You will collaborate closely with Sales, Solutions Engineering, Applied Research, and Product teams, and you will report to the Startups Applied AI Lead. This role is based in our San Francisco or New York offices. 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: - Partner closely with strategic startup customers as their technical thought partner to build novel applications on our API, helping them rapidly move from ideation to scale. - Provide proactive guidance to maximize business impact and accelerate application development. - Experiment and prototype alongside customers, demonstrating practical use cases. - Contribute to open-source resources and scale the function by sharing knowledge, codifying best practices, and publishing useful resources. - Synthesize and deliver valuable feedback to the Product and Research teams. - Build relationships within the startup ecosystem, serving as a technical partner to both individual customers and the broader community. - Partner with the Sales team across startup accounts to identify customer opportunities, align technical work with business goals, and help customers bring AI applications to production. You’ll thrive in this role if you: - Have 5+ years of experience as a software engineer, ML engineer or equivalent, ideally in a startup enviro…
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