Level

OpenAI

Engineering Manager, Multimodal (API)

OpenAI is hiring an Engineering Manager, Multimodal (API) in San Francisco, United States. It pays $401k-$445k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on OpenAI.

Level's read on this job

  • Builds AI ●●●● is how Level rates this role: the job is building AI systems.
  • Tools and skills the posting cites include computer vision, AI research and engineering management.
  • Level classifies it as a lead role.
  • Level lists 795 other open roles at OpenAI.

AI in this role

Lead an engineering team focused on multimodal API products including image generation and real-time interactions at OpenAI.

computer-visionai-researchengineering-managementmultimodal-aiapidistributed-systems

About the Team:
OpenAI's mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. Our API is the industry's most widely adopted AI platform, empowering startups, indie developers, and Fortune 500 companies alike. Through multimodal APIs, we enable users to harness the full potential of diverse AI modalities effectively and at scale.

About the Role:

We are seeking an Engineering Manager to lead our multimodal API product suite. Your team will be responsible for delivering innovative APIs across real-time multimodal interactions and image generation. You will own the product roadmap for how we evolve our multimodal API offerings, and you will build the products that allow developers to reach millions of end users through AI audio, video, and images.

In this role, you will:

  • Build, mentor, and grow a high-performing engineering team focused on multimodal API products—including image generation and Live API.

  • Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and other stakeholders to define the strategic vision and product roadmap.

  • Work closely with our research teams to improve our core multimodal models for API customer use cases.

  • Guide technical and architectural decisions, emphasizing scalability, robustness, and user experience.

  • Foster a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and accountability within your team.

Qualifications:

  • Proven experience managing engineering teams that deliver complex, high-quality products at scale.

  • Strong technical background and proficiency in modern software engineering practices and system architecture.

  • Excellent collaboration and communication skills to effectively coordinate across diverse teams and stakeholders.

  • Familiarity with or strong interest in multimodal AI, including speech technologies, real-time systems, and image generation.

  • Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, ambiguous startup environment.


Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience developing multimodal systems or APIs in AI/ML domains, especially around image generation, audio generation, or speech transcription.

  • Familiarity with real-time streaming technologies, audio processing, and computer vision.

  • Hands-on experience with cloud platforms and distributed architectures.

Location:

This role is in-person at our San Francisco office.

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.

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. 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.

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy

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.

How we rate this

Engineering Manager, Multimodal (API) at OpenAI rates 95 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Computer visionAI ResearchEngineering ManagementMultimodal AIAPIDistributed Systems

Questions you could be asked

  1. Walk me through a computer vision problem you solved, from raw data to a deployed model.
  2. Tell me about a research question you investigated. What did you find?
  3. Tell me about a project where engineering management was part of your work. What did you do?
  4. Tell me about a project where multimodal ai was part of your work. What did you do?
  5. Tell me about a project where api was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: Computer vision, AI Research, Engineering Management, Multimodal AI, and API. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
  • Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
  • Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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