Optical Interconnect System Engineer

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're looking for an Optical Interconnect System Engineer to design, qualify, and deploy scalable optical connectivity for large-scale AI infrastructure. This role spans fiber-system architecture, optical-mechanical integration, validation, reliability, deployment, and serviceability. You will work with optical, mechanical, electrical, networking, manufacturing, reliability, and data-center teams to translate system needs into practical interconnect solutions. This is a hands-on role for someone who can connect design decisions with installation, qualification, troubleshooting, and long-term operational performance. In this role, you will: - Define optical interconnect architectures and requirements across hardware platforms and rack-level systems. - Design high-density fiber systems for performance, density, reliability, installation, and serviceability. - Lead optical-mechanical integration and cross-functional design reviews. - Develop test and qualification plans for optical components, modules, switching platforms, and integrated systems. - Own optical loss budgets, routing guidelines, handling requirements, and serviceability criteria. - Support system bring-up, deployment, troubleshooting, failure analysis, and reliability improvement. - Create reusable design guidelines, interface requirements, and qualification methods. You might thrive in this role if you have: Core experience -

Department: Scaling; Team: Hardware