OpenAI
Principal Software Engineer, Productivity
- Employment type
- Full-time
- Location
- San Francisco
- Published
- Oct 23, 2026
- Last checked
- Oct 26, 2026
About this role
ABOUT THE TEAM
The Connector Ecosystem team builds the platform and product experiences that let people extend ChatGPT and Codex. We work on plugins, skills, connectors, interactive apps, and open standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP). We make plugins easy to discover, install, and use, ensure they’re invoked at the right time, and help people find new ways to get value from them.
We want anyone to be able to turn a useful workflow into a plugin, share it, and have other people use it. A plugin can package instructions and skills with connections to the tools and data it needs. Our work spans creation and publishing, reliable execution across our products, clear permissions and approvals, and the controls admins need to bring plugins to their organizations. We work closely with research to improve tool quality as models evolve.
ABOUT THE ROLE
We’re looking for a product-minded Principal Software Engineer to set technical direction, build the systems behind plugins, and improve how models use them. Depending on your focus, you may scale generalist infrastructure and identity-related integrations across products, improve plugin quality at the intersection of backend engineering and applied AI, or work on the product experience itself to drive plugin usage. You’ll lead complex initiatives across teams and own problems from diagnosis and design through implementation and release.
You’ll remain hands-on while driving product and design decisions alongside Product, Design, Research, and engineering partners. You’ll help shape what we build and how it works, translate user and developer needs into clear priorities, and guide technical decisions that balance rapid iteration with long-term reliability and maintainability.
This role is based in San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.
IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL
- Set technical direction and lead complex initiatives across the Plugin Ecosystem, aligning architecture and execution across teams.