Research Scientist / Research Engineer — Early Career Cohort

About the Program

OpenAI is hiring a small cohort of exceptional early-career researchers and engineers to join OpenAI Research.

This opportunity is designed primarily for current undergraduate students and recent graduates who have demonstrated technical ability through elite competitions and challenges.

Participants join OpenAI directly as full-time Research Scientists / Research Engineers and begin with an intensive one-month research bootcamp designed to immerse them in the core problems behind modern AI systems.

Many of the strongest researchers at OpenAI first distinguished themselves through mathematics or programming competitions, and we believe exceptional reasoning ability is one of the strongest predictors of success in frontier AI research.

During the bootcamp participants will:

• Learn OpenAI’s research infrastructure and tools

• Work with a mentor and get direct experience building here

• Meet with researchers across multiple OpenAI teams and explore potential research directions

• Work on technically demanding research challenges

After the bootcamp, participants enter a structured team-matching process before joining a permanent research team.

If you enjoy solving very difficult problems and want to work on the frontier of AI, we encourage you to apply.

About the Role

You will join OpenAI as a full-time Research Scientist / Research Engineer based in San Francisco, CA.

The first month consists of a structured research bootcamp where participants work closely with researchers across the organization before selecting a permanent research team.

This role follows a hybrid, in-person collaboration schedule in San Francisco. Relocation assistance may be available.

Who We’re Looking For

This role is designed for early-career individuals, especially current undergraduate students and recent graduates.

Strong candidates often demonstrate this through technical competitions, research, or ambitious independent projects.

You might be:

• A top competitor in mathematics or programming competitions (e.g., Olympiads, Putnam, ICPC, or similar contests)

• A top performer in an OpenAI-hosted Challenge or similar

• A mathematician, physicist, or quantitative researcher interested in the foundations of intelligence

• A builder or hacker who has created ambitious technical systems or research prototypes

• An exceptional early-career engineer or researcher with strong technical intuition

If you’ve done well in competitions such as the IMO, EGMO, IOI, Putnam, ICPC, or similar contests, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Minimum Qualifications

• Demonstrated exceptional mathematical or algorithmic problem-solving ability

• Strong ability to reason about complex technical or mathematical systems

• Comfort with linear algebra, probability, statistics, and optimization

• Evidence of rapid independent learning and technical creativity

• Ability to obtain and maintain authorization to work in the United States by the program start date. Candidates who cannot secure appropriate work authorization by the start date may not be eligible for this cohort.

Preferred Qualifications

Candidates often demonstrate this ability through:

• High-level results in Olympiads, Putnam, ICPC, or similar competitions

• Top or novel performance in an OpenAI-hosted Challenge or similar

• Research in mathematics, algorithms, theoretical computer science, physics, or machine learning

• Independent projects exploring machine learning systems, algorithms, or AI research

Application and Interview Process

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

The cohort is expected to start on June 3, 2026.⁠

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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