OpenAI Machine Learning Engineer jobs
20 US Research Engineer and MLE reqs open; the core req posts $250K–$445K base before equity.
The Research Engineer role
OpenAI research engineers build and scale the training and post-training systems behind frontier models, mostly inside Research teams on a dual research engineer / research scientist track, while a separate Applied AI Engineering org builds products and deployments on top. Hiring is rolling through Ashby with one evergreen generic req plus team reqs, and the loop stresses coding and a technical deep dive.
No separate MLE ladder — Research Engineer sits inside Research (Post-training, Reasoning, Agents, Foundations, Codex) and 10 of the 20 US reqs are dual-track RE/RS, while MLE titles sit in Applied AI Engineering, API and Devices; applied-AI titles are posted separately as Applied AI Engineer (12 US), Forward Deployed Engineer (13 US) and Applied AI Architect (8 US).
OpenAI ML engineer salary
Base: the posted range on the live generic ‘Research Engineer’ req (San Francisco; published Apr 5, 2025, read Oct 11, 2026) plus equity; other US RE and MLE reqs post $223k–$850k, topping out at the RE/RS Foundations (Search) req. All-in: no figure — levels.fyi has only two OpenAI Machine Learning Engineer and two Research Engineer samples, too thin to cite.
See how OpenAI compares in the full ML engineer salary guide →
How OpenAI scores
Index score: 93/100. How we rank →
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