Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
This Optical Network Engineer role stands out in the SaaS ecosystem because it sits at the infrastructure layer that increasingly underpins AI delivered as a service. While the listing is for a hardware organization, the work is tightly coupled to large scale compute systems and the optical interconnects that make high throughput, low latency model serving feasible in production environments.
For a SaaS career, the value is in building fluency across the full lifecycle of platform capability, from lab characterization to production readiness and scaled deployment. Experience translating component level behavior into system level reliability, and aligning internal stakeholders with external suppliers, maps directly to how modern SaaS platforms mature their underlying primitives and reduce operational risk as usage grows.
The role fits professionals who prefer hands on validation, data driven debugging, and technical ownership across ambiguous problem spaces. It also suits engineers who enjoy cross functional collaboration and partner management, and who want their impact measured through deployment outcomes rather than isolated prototypes.
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’s Hardware organization develops silicon and system-level solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. The team is responsible for building the next generation of AI-native silicon while working closely with software and research partners to co-design hardware tightly integrated with AI models. In addition to delivering production-grade silicon for OpenAI’s supercomputing infrastructure, the team also creates custom design tools and methodologies that accelerate innovation and enable hardware optimized specifically for AI.
About the role:
We are seeking an experienced Optical Network Engineer to lead Laser related work within our optical interconnect efforts for large-scale compute systems. The role also requires broad, hands-on optical validation experience across IM/DD-based interconnects, working from lab characterization through production readiness and scaled deployment.
In this role you will:
Drive laser-focused requirements and technical direction within the broader optical interconnect roadmap.
Lead evaluation and validation of optical components and subsystems, including laser-based elements, in lab and production-representative environments.
Support end-to-end optical testing for IM/DD interconnects (e.g., module/system bring-up, characterization, debug, and readiness for scale).
Work with external partners to align on development milestones, performance targets, and quality expectations.
Own technical issue triage and resolution across performance, reliability, and manufacturability topics.
Collaborate across internal teams to support integration, rollout, and operational success at scale.
You might thrive in this role if you have:
Strong experience in laser-focused optical engineering (development, validation, manufacturing readiness, or field support).
Broad hands-on background with IM/DD optical technologies and optical test/debug workflows.
Experience working with external suppliers/manufacturing partners and production-oriented execution.
Demonstrated ability to debug complex technical issues using data-driven methods.
Clear written and verbal communication; ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders.
Advanced degree in a relevant engineering field preferred (or equivalent industry experience).
To comply with U.S. export control laws and regulations, candidates for this role may need to meet certain legal status requirements as provided in those laws and regulations.
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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