{"id":78996,"url":"https://alion.io/job/openai-performance-modeling-lead","title":"Performance Modeling Lead","company":{"id":2,"name":"OpenAI","domain":"openai.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/openai","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":78,"open_postings":196,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.898,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":51,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States","Seattle, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":347000,"max":445000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":445000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"OpenAI","optional":false},{"name":"InfiniBand","optional":true},{"name":"NVLink","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-04-20T19:32:59Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-04-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T06:24:03Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":179,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":179},"description":"About the Team\nOpenAI’s Hardware organization develops system and infrastructure solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. We work closely with research, software, and external hardware partners to shape the next generation of AI systems, from silicon through full-scale deployments.\nOur team focuses on understanding and optimizing performance across the full system stack-ensuring that architectural decisions are grounded in rigorous, quantitative analysis of real-world workloads.\nAbout the Role\nWe are seeking a Performance Modeling Lead to build and lead a small, high-impact team responsible for answering forward-looking architectural questions across AI infrastructure systems.\nYou will develop modeling frameworks and methodologies to evaluate system-level tradeoffs and guide key design decisions. Your work will directly influence reference architectures, vendor designs, and long-term infrastructure strategy.\nThis role sits at the intersection of AI workloads, system architecture, and quantitative modeling, and requires strong technical judgment, ownership, and the ability to translate complex analysis into clear, actionable guidance.\nThis 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.\nKey Responsibilities\nBuild and own a performance modeling framework/toolchain to evaluate AI systems across multiple levels of abstraction.\n\nAnalyze and quantify architectural tradeoffs across compute, memory, networking, storage, and system topology.\n\nDevelop performance models to guide decisions on:\nscale-up vs. scale-out architectures\n\ninterconnect and network design\n\nmemory hierarchy and system balance.\n\nTranslate modeling outputs into clear recommendations for internal teams and external hardware vendors.\n\nInfluence reference designs and vendor roadmaps through data-driven insights.\n\nPartner closely with machine learning, systems, and hardware teams to understand workload characteristics and requirements.\n\nLead and grow a small team (2-3 engineers), setting technical direction and maintaining high standards for modeling rigor.\n\nContinuously improve modeling fidelity by validating against real system behavior and measurements.\n\nQualifications\nHave experience owning or building performance modeling frameworks used to drive real system design decisions.\n\nHave deep knowledge of AI/ML workloads, including training and/or inference at scale.\n\nUnderstand system-level tradeoffs across compute, memory, and networking in large-scale distributed systems.\n\nAre comfortable working across abstraction layers-from workload behavior to hardware implementation.\n\nHave experience using modeling (analytical or simulation) to inform architectural decisions.\n\nCan operate in ambiguous problem spaces and turn open-ended questions into structured analysis.\n\nCommunicate clearly and influence both internal teams and external partners.\n\nPreferred Skills\nExperience working with hardware vendors (ODM/JDM, silicon, networking).\n\nBackground in data center infrastructure or hyperscale systems.\n\nFamiliarity with accelerators (GPUs/ASICs) and interconnects (e.g., NVLink, InfiniBand, Ethernet).\n\nExperience influencing hardware roadmaps or reference architectures.\n\nPrior experience leading or mentoring engineers.\n\nAbout OpenAI\nOpenAI 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.\nWe 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.\nFor additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.\nBackground 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.\nTo 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.\nWe are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.\nOpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy\nAt 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.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5862,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Hybrid work","Relocation assistance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Generative Video","Code Intelligence","Foundation Models","AI Research Labs"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-25T14:37:23Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 262 · green card filings: 3","filings_12m":262,"filings_prev_12m":114,"green_card_filings_12m":3,"median_offered_wage_usd":272217,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":126}],"liveness":{"score":8,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.302,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":179,"expected_fill_days":51,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":445000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/openai-performance-modeling-lead","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/openai-performance-modeling-lead.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-17T07:07:24Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":9714,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-18T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fopenai-performance-modeling-lead"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fopenai-performance-modeling-lead"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fopenai-performance-modeling-lead"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/openai-performance-modeling-lead\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fopenai-performance-modeling-lead"}]}