Research Engineer​/Research Scientist, RL

About the Team

The RL team drives the core reasoning paradigm and has created groundbreaking innovations such as o1 and o3. They focus on pushing the boundaries of reinforcement learning research, building next
- generation generative models, and deploying them at scale.

As a Research Engineer/Research Scientist at OpenAI, you will advance the frontier of AI alignment and capabilities through cutting‑edge RL methods. Your work will sit at the heart of training intelligent, aligned, and general‑purpose agents, including the systems that power various models.

We’re looking for people who have a background in reinforcement learning research, are able to iterate quickly, and are proficient at coding.

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

• You love being on the cutting edge of RL and language model research.
• You’re a self-starter who takes initiative and ownership of ideas, driving them to completion.
• You value principled approaches, simple experiments in tightly‑controlled settings, and reaching trustworthy conclusions which stand the test of time.
• You thrive in a fast‑paced, dynamic, and technically complex environment where rapid iteration is key.
• You’re comfortable diving into a large ML codebase to debug and improve it.
• You have a deep understanding of machine learning and machine learning applications.

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.

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.

$310K – $460K
• Offers Equity

The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience.

In addition to the salary range listed above, total compensation also includes generous equity and benefits.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family
• Mental health and wellness support
• 401(k) plan with 50% matching
• Generous time off, many company holidays, and multiple coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge.
• Paid parental leave (24 weeks paid birth‑parent leave & 20‑week paid parental leave) and family‑planning support
• Annual learning & development stipend ($1,500 per year)