Software Engineer - Privacy & Compliance

Stack

Responsibilities

• ▹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 so 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 while minimizing duplicated implementations
• ▹Contribute patterns, libraries, and education that elevate trustworthy data access patterns across the organization

Requirements

• ▹5+ years of industry experience building and operating backend or infrastructure systems in production
• ▹Strong software engineering fundamentals, with fluency in at least one major programming language (e.g., Python, Go, Rust, C++, Java)
• ▹Experience with distributed authorization, RBAC/ACL systems, encryption-based access, or policy engines
• ▹Familiarity with global privacy regulations and their architectural implications
• ▹Ability to influence and collaborate with teams across legal, compliance, product, and engineering
• ▹A bias toward practical, impactful solutions that balance privacy protections with product needs

Nice to have

• ▹Experience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) and large-scale data systems
• ▹Background in security engineering, privacy engineering, or data governance
• ▹Experience with control-plane or metadata-driven enforcement systems
• ▹Exposure to data platforms or ML infrastructure
• ▹Prior experience in a regulated or highly sensitive data environment

Soft skills

About the company

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity, pushing the boundaries of AI capabilities while putting safety and human needs at the core of what they build.