Level

OpenAI

Software Engineer, Plugin Developer Platform

OpenAI is hiring a Software Engineer, Plugin Developer Platform in San Francisco, United States. It pays $185k-$490k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on OpenAI.

Level's read on this job

  • Level rates this software engineer role Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
  • The listed pay starts 10% above the typical software engineer posting on Level.
  • The posting allows some remote work.
  • Tools and skills the posting cites include MCP, AI agents and AI research.
  • Level lists 793 other open roles at OpenAI.

AI in this role

Build APIs, SDKs, and developer tools that enable developers to extend ChatGPT, Codex, and AI plugin platforms.

mcp
ai-agentsai-researchapi-designsdk-developmentdeveloper-platformstypescriptpython

About the Team

The Plugin Developer Platform team builds the APIs, SDKs, and tools that let people extend ChatGPT and Codex. We work on plugins, connectors, the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and interactive apps.

We want anyone to be able to turn a useful workflow into a plugin, share it, and have other people use it. A plugin can package instructions and skills with connections to the tools and data it needs. Our work covers plugin creation and publishing, the systems that run plugins across our products, and open standards that developers can build on.

About the Role

We’re looking for platform-minded engineers who know what it takes to build a platform developers want to use. You’ll work across developer-facing interfaces, APIs, and backend systems. You’ll own features from the first developer conversation through implementation and release.

You’ll talk directly with developers, partners, and the open-source community. Their experience will inform the APIs and abstractions you design, the problems you prioritize, and the tradeoffs you make.

This role is based in San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

What You’ll Do

  • Design and ship APIs, SDKs, and services that developers use to extend ChatGPT and Codex.

  • Make plugins easier to create, test, publish, update, and share.

  • Improve compatibility and consistency across ChatGPT and Codex, including interactive app experiences.

  • Contribute to MCP and other open standards, bringing practical developer needs into their design.

  • Work with developers and partners to understand recurring problems and improve the platform, tooling, and documentation.

  • Work with Product, Research, Security, and Trust & Safety on permissions, compatibility, and safe, reliable execution.

You Might Thrive Here If You

  • Have built software that other developers use. Your experience might include an open-source project, an API or SDK, a developer platform, internal tools with real users, or a devtools company.

  • Have opinions about APIs and abstractions, and can explain the tradeoffs behind your decisions.

  • Enjoy talking with developers and learning what they are trying to build.

  • Can move between product questions and technical details, identify what matters, and take work from an unclear problem through to production.

  • Are comfortable working across web interfaces and backend systems, and learning unfamiliar parts of the stack.

  • Want to help define how developers build software for AI agents, including through open standards such as MCP.

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

Software Engineer, Plugin Developer Platform at OpenAI rates 75 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 agentsAI ResearchAPI DesignSdk DevelopmentDeveloper PlatformsTypeScriptPythonMCP

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Pay

This job starts at
$185k
Typical software engineer job
$168k

This posting starts 10% above the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

  1. How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
  2. Tell me about a research question you investigated. What did you find?
  3. Tell me about a project where api design was part of your work. What did you do?
  4. Tell me about a project where sdk development was part of your work. What did you do?
  5. Tell me about a project where developer platforms was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: AI agents, AI Research, API Design, Sdk Development, and Developer Platforms. 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.

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