Software Engineer - Privacy & Compliance at OpenAI in San Francisco

We’re looking for a Software Engineer to architect and build backend systems that enforce data privacy and automate compliance at scale. You’ll work closely with product, infrastructure, security, and legal teams to embed privacy-by-design into our data and access layers. This is a hands-on, high-impact role for an experienced engineer who is passionate about protecting user data while enabling innovation. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Design, build, and operate backend services that enforce policy-driven data access, lifecycle controls, and privacy protections. - Develop distributed authorization and identity-aware enforcement mechanisms integrated directly into data services and control planes. - Implement auditability, policy hooks, and enforcement observability to ensure compliance is continuously verifiable. - Partner with Security, Legal, and Compliance to convert privacy requirements into scalable technical designs and developer-friendly APIs. - Harden data platforms and backend services through schema-level controls and data handling constraints by default. - Collaborate with infrastructure teams to ensure consistent enforcement across systems while minimizing duplicated implementations. - Contribute patterns, libraries, and education that elevate trustworthy data access patterns across the organization. YOU MIGHT THRIVE IN THIS ROLE IF YOU HAVE - 5+ years of industry…