Offensive Security Engineer, Hardware

About the Team

Security is at the foundation of OpenAI’s mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. The Security team protects OpenAI’s technology, people, and products. We are technical in what we build but are operational in how we do our work, and are committed to supporting all products and research at OpenAI. Our Security team tenets include: prioritizing for impact, enabling researchers, preparing for future transformative technologies, and engaging a robust security culture.

About the Role

We're seeking an exceptional Principal-level Offensive Security Engineer to challenge and strengthen OpenAI's security posture. This role isn't your typical red team job - it's an opportunity to engage broadly and deeply, craft innovative attack simulations, collaborate closely with defensive teams, and influence strategic security improvements across the organization.

You'll have the chance to not only find vulnerabilities but actively drive their resolution, automate offensive techniques with cutting-edge technologies, and use your unique attacker perspective to shape our security strategy. This role will be primarily focused on continuously testing our hardware products and related services.

In this role you will:

• Collaborate proactively with engineering teams to enhance security and mitigate risks in hardware, firmware, and software.

• Perform comprehensive penetration testing on our diverse suite of products.

• Leverage advanced automation and OpenAI technologies to optimize your offensive security work.

• Present insightful, actionable findings clearly and compellingly to inspire impactful change.

• Influence security strategy by providing attacker-driven insights into risk and threat modeling.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• 7+ years of hands-on experience or exceptional accomplishments demonstrating equivalent expertise.

• Exceptional skill in code review, identifying novel and subtle vulnerabilities.

• Demonstrated mastery assessing complex technology stacks, including:

  • Proven ability to reverse engineer bootrom images, firmware, or silicon-level components.

  • Deep familiarity with low-level kernel operations, secure boot processes, and hardware-software interactions.

  • Hands-on experience building and validating secure boot chains and threat models.

  • Proficiency with hardware debugging tools (UART, JTAG, SWD, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers).

  • Solid programming skills in C/C++, Python, or assembly for embedded systems.

  • Industry experience securing consumer hardware (e.g., mobile devices, IoT, chipsets).

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences.

• Strong intuitive understanding of trust boundaries and risk assessment in dynamic contexts.

• Excellent coding skills, capable of writing robust tools and automation for offensive operations.

• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts effectively through compelling storytelling.

• Proven track record of not just finding vulnerabilities but actively contributing to solutions in complex codebases.

Bonus points:

• Prior experience working in tech startups or fast-paced technology environments.

• Experience in related disciplines such as Software Engineering (SWE), Detection Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Security Engineering, or IT Infrastructure.

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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