Hardware System Design Electrical Engineer

We’re looking for an early-career electrical engineer to help develop cutting-edge hardware for next-generation AI systems. You’ll contribute to board- and system-level designs, working closely with teams across electrical, mechanical, and software disciplines to bring ideas from concept to real, testable prototypes and production-ready systems.

This is a hands-on role where you’ll support schematic design, layout, bring-up, and validation of custom electronics. You’ll help debug issues in the lab, run tests to validate performance, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to solve real system-level challenges. We’re looking for someone with strong fundamentals, solid project experience, and a clear interest in building real hardware.

This role is based in our San Francisco office, with an expectation of being onsite four days per week.

What You’ll Do:

• Support schematic design and PCB layout (rigid and flex)

• Bring up and validate prototype systems in the lab

• Use test equipment to debug hardware and verify performance

• Work across teams to support integration of electrical and mechanical systems

• Contribute to solving signal integrity, power delivery, and EMI issues

• Take ownership of key design tasks while learning from senior engineers

What We’re Looking For:

• 1–3 years of relevant experience (industry, research, or personal projects)

• Strong understanding of electrical engineering fundamentals

• Familiarity with schematic capture and PCB design tools

• Experience with lab equipment like oscilloscopes and logic analyzers

• Exposure to system integration, prototyping, or board bring-up

• Experience or demonstrated interest in consumer hardware products

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.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act. 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.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

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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.