Training: ML Framework Engineer

About the Team

Training Runtime designs the core distributed machine-learning training runtime that powers everything from early research experiments to frontier-scale model runs. With a dual mandate to accelerate researchers and enable frontier scale, we’re building a unified, modular runtime that meets researchers where they are and moves with them up the scaling curve.

Our work focuses on three pillars: high-performance, asynchronous, zero-copy tensor and optimizer-state-aware data movement; performant, high-uptime, fault-tolerant training frameworks (training loop, state management, resilient checkpointing, deterministic orchestration, and observability); and distributed process management for long-lived, job-specific and user-provided processes.

We integrate proven large-scale capabilities into a composable, developer-facing runtime so teams can iterate quickly and run reliably at any scale, partnering closely with model-stack, research, and platform teams. Success for us is measured by raising both training throughput (how fast models train) and researcher throughput (how fast ideas become experiments and products).

About the Role

As a Training: ML Framework Engineer, you will work on improving the training throughput for our internal training framework, while enabling researchers to experiment with new ideas.  This requires good engineering (for example designing, implementing, and optimizing state-of-the-art AI models), writing bug-free machine learning code (surprisingly difficult!), and acquiring deep knowledge of the performance of supercomputers. In all the projects this role pursues, the ultimate goal is to push the field forward.

We’re looking for people who love optimizing performance, understanding distributed systems, and who cannot stand having bugs in their code.  Since our training framework is used for large runs with massive numbers of GPUs, performance improvements here will have a large impact.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. 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:

• Apply the latest techniques in our internal training framework to achieve impressive hardware efficiency for our training runs

• Profile and optimize our training framework

• Work with researchers to enable them to develop the next generation of models

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have run small scale ML experiments

• Love figuring out how systems work and continuously come up with ideas for how to make them faster while minimizing complexity and maintenance burden

• Have strong software engineering skills and are proficient in Python

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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