Skip to content
Level

OpenAI

Intelligence Systems Analyst

OpenAI is hiring an Intelligence Systems Analyst in San Francisco, United States. It pays $199k-$288k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on OpenAI.

Level's read on this job

  • On Level's scale, this role is Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
  • Tools and skills the posting cites include AI research.
  • Level lists 795 other open roles at OpenAI.

AI in this role

ai-research

About the Team

The Intelligence and Investigations (I2) team provides intelligence to decision makers across OpenAI and investigates severe misuse of our products. I2’s work saves lives: we disrupt real-world violence, protect children, and prevent catastrophic harms from AI misuse. We also draw on our investigations and in-depth analysis of a wide range of data sources to provide actionable quantitative and qualitative intelligence to OpenAI’s leadership.

I2 Engineering works hand in hand with I2’s analysts and investigators, building tools that expand what human experts can understand and accomplish. Our tools help them make sense of vast and complex datasets, discover and measure on-platform and off-platform risk, and investigate severe misuse with greater speed, depth, and consistency.


About the Role

We are looking for an Intelligence Systems Analyst who wants to work alongside investigators to understand difficult cases, contribute to analysis, and build tools and workflows that help the team do more. As investigators pursue leads, assess risks, and determine what happened, you’ll see where better tools could help and build them.

The role combines hands-on software and data work with meaningful participation in investigations. Depending on the problem, you might trace activity across internal systems, write a query or small application, prototype an AI-assisted workflow, improve how evidence is assembled, or turn an investigator’s recurring need into a durable product capability.

You will work closely with engineers, analysts, investigators, and other subject matter experts. Success requires enough operational understanding to contribute meaningfully to an investigation and enough technical ownership to build solutions that remain useful after the immediate case is resolved.

In this role, you will:

  • Work directly alongside investigators on complex cases, helping develop leads, analyze evidence, and identify useful technical approaches.

  • Build and maintain software, data workflows, and internal tools that accelerate investigations of potential high-severity misuse or harm.

  • Use Python, SQL, and internal data systems to gather, connect, and analyze information relevant to investigative work.

  • Apply OpenAI’s models to research, search, triage, synthesis, and evidence review in workflows that keep expert investigators informed and in control.

  • Turn recurring investigative bottlenecks into reliable tools, automation, and product capabilities that support multiple users and cases.

  • Prototype quickly when a new investigative question arises, then improve reliability, usability, and maintainability as requirements become clearer.

  • Respect the privacy, permissions, evidence-handling requirements, and operational safeguards that accompany sensitive investigative work.

  • Collaborate with teams across Applied, Safety Systems, Research, User Operations, and Strategy when their expertise or systems are needed.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

  • Experience building and shipping software, internal tools, data workflows, or operational products.

  • Comfort working directly with investigators, analysts, or other subject matter experts in ambiguous or consequential situations.

  • Practical experience with Python, SQL, and structured or unstructured data.

  • The ability to investigate an unclear problem, follow evidence across systems, and turn what you learn into a practical next step.

  • Sound judgment about privacy, data access, evidence quality, and the consequences of getting an investigation wrong.

  • Interest in using AI systems to extend human investigative capability while keeping expert judgment central.

  • The flexibility to move between coding, analysis, investigative support, and close collaboration with technical and operational partners.

Experience in trust and safety, security, intelligence, investigations, or related domains is helpful but not required.

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

Intelligence Systems Analyst at OpenAI rates 66 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.

  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

AI Research

Questions you could be asked

  1. Tell me about a research question you investigated. What did you find?
  2. Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
  3. If you removed AI from this role, what would be left, and how do you decide what still needs a human?

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: AI Research. 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.
  • Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.

Want an expert to read your CV for this job?

Free. Send your CV and the role you want next. We reply by email within 2 to 4 business days.

Get new AI jobs (Works on AI ●●●○ or higher) by email

One email a week with the new AI jobs (Works on AI ●●●○ or higher), each rated for how much AI is in the work. No recruiter spam, unsubscribe in one click.

Free. One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click.

Similar roles

Other roles that work on AI, at other companies.

What kind of AI work fits you?

Answer 12 practical questions in about three minutes. Get a simple profile, the work it points to, and live roles to explore next.

Find my next step

More jobs at OpenAI

Related searches

Same AI level

Jobs by city