OpenAI
Researcher, Safety - Frontier Assurance
- Employment type
- Full-time
- Location
- San Francisco
- Published
- Oct 14, 2026
- Last checked
- Oct 26, 2026
About this role
ABOUT THE TEAM
The Frontier Assurance team strengthens OpenAI’s safety decisions through independent expertise, rigorous assessment, and public transparency. We coordinate external evaluations of frontier models and safeguards, develop approaches such as embedded auditing, and manage the misalignment disclosure process and safeguard testing. Our work helps independent experts scrutinize OpenAI’s safety approach and ensures their findings inform consequential decisions about advanced AI systems.
ABOUT THE ROLE
As a researcher on Frontier Assurance, you will build the technical foundations for rigorous assessments of frontier AI risks. You will help design technical assessments with external evaluators and internal teams: identify consequential safety claims to test, define the evidence and methods needed to assess them, and address gaps in coverage.
You will work closely with external evaluators and embedded auditors, helping them understand the systems they are assessing and access the models, data, and technical information their work requires. Where direct access is not possible, you will conduct experiments and analyses on their behalf, with methods and results they can meaningfully scrutinize.
This role combines research engineering, experimental design, and close technical collaboration. You will move between investigating specific safety questions, navigating complex internal systems, and building reusable tools that make assessments more thorough and efficient. Your work will help turn independent scrutiny into concrete evidence about model capabilities, safeguards, and remaining risks.
IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL:
- Help design assessments with external evaluators and internal teams: identify consequential safety claims to test, define the evidence and methods needed to assess them, and address gaps in coverage.
- Support the technical execution of third-party assessments and embedded audits focused on frontier risks, working with evaluators to translate research questions into experiments, analyses, and evidence requirements.