Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
This Quality Engineer role is notable in the SaaS ecosystem because it sits underneath AI product delivery, where cloud software performance is increasingly constrained by physical infrastructure. The remit spans manufacturing, logistics, and commissioning for datacenter systems, reflecting how modern SaaS and AI services depend on dependable supply chains and repeatable site bring up, not only code releases.
For a SaaS career, the long-term value is exposure to reliability thinking at platform scale. Building a quality function across vendors and sites develops fluency in metrics driven operations, structured root cause analysis, and cross functional alignment between design, test, manufacturing, and operations. Those patterns translate well to SaaS environments where uptime, incident prevention, and change control are central, even when the work is not purely software.
The role best suits professionals who prefer systems level problem solving and influencing without direct authority. It favors a working style that is comfortable moving between factory floors, project sites, and engineering stakeholders, with travel as a built in part of execution. It also fits candidates motivated by turning ambiguous quality goals into durable processes that can be reused across a growing footprint.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
Job Description
About the Team
OpenAI, together with our capital and technology partners, is building a global network of advanced datacenters to support the most demanding AI workloads. The Industrial Compute team ensures that datacenter systems are manufactured, delivered, and commissioned to world-class standards of quality, reliability, and performance.
We partner closely with manufacturing vendors, general contractors, engineering teams, and operations organizations to ensure every component arrives ready for installation, startup, and long-term service. Our scope spans vendor qualification through commissioning, enabling operational readiness across our global portfolio.
About the Role
We are seeking an experienced Quality Engineer (QE) to establish and manage a scalable Product and Site Quality function for our industrial compute supply chain. You will drive end-to-end manufacturing quality, from supplier qualification and first article builds through factory acceptance, logistics, and installation readiness.
You will work cross-functionally with Design (NPI), Test Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, and Operations to achieve FPY, reliability, yield, and validation objectives—while leading proactive and corrective actions that eliminate systemic risks. This role will also evaluate and develop future suppliers, ensuring production capacity and quality processes grow alongside OpenAI’s datacenter infrastructure expansion.
Key Responsibilities
Conduct supplier capability assessments and execute quality audits across production, testing, and delivery
Define and track quality metrics to identify trends and proactively address issues before shipment
Build and maintain a datacenter-focused manufacturing quality program aligned with global deployment needs
Integrate manufacturing quality requirements into sourcing, design, commissioning, and operational workflows
Ensure vendor teams meet OpenAI’s quality standards and specifications through hands-on support and structured feedback
Coordinate closely with engineering, sourcing, construction, and operations teams to align quality priorities with project goals
Lead root cause analysis, corrective and preventive action plans, and the resolution of quality non-conformances
Audit quality activities at vendor and project sites to verify compliance with requirements and operational readiness
Travel: 30% domestic and international to manufacturing sites, datacenter locations, and partner facilities
*We would consider fully remote candidates for this role if you are not located in the Bay Area
Qualifications
10+ years in manufacturing quality, supplier quality, process improvement, or datacenter engineering/operations
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Construction Management, or related field (or equivalent experience)
Demonstrated ability to analyze data, solve problems, and improve manufacturing performance
Proven track record managing deliverables across complex supplier programs
Excellent communication skills with experience influencing technical and executive stakeholders
Preferred Skills
Technical knowledge of datacenter infrastructure systems (mechanical, electrical, compute)
Experience managing quality for mission-critical or industrial systems
ASQ CQE/CQM/CQA or Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification
PMP or similar project management credential
Experience in industrial or high-volume manufacturing environments
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.
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