DAQ Station Engineer

About the Team

The OpenAI Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and pushing towards AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world settings. Working across the entire model stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the constraints of physical systems to improve peoples’ lives.

About the Role

We’re looking for a DAQ Station Hardware Engineer to develop and improve the physical hardware that goes into OpenAI’s robotic data collection stations. This role will design, prototype, validate, and deploy station hardware such as fixtures, mounts, operator interfaces, workcell equipment, safety mechanisms, and other electromechanical systems that support reliable daily operation.

You will work closely with Robotics Engineering, Research, Software, and Operations to translate evolving needs into practical hardware solutions that are robust, serviceable, and scalable across an expanding DAQ footprint.

What You’ll Do

• Design and develop station hardware and electromechanical subsystems, including fixtures, equipment mounts, operator-facing hardware, sensing support structures, enclosures, and safety-related components.

• Translate program and operational needs into clear hardware requirements, prototypes, and production-ready designs.

• Support hardware through the full lifecycle: concept, detailed design, build, test, deployment, issue resolution, and iteration.

• Partner with cross-functional teams to ensure station hardware integrates cleanly with robotics platforms, software, data collection workflows, and operator use cases.

• Improve station reliability, usability, and serviceability by diagnosing field issues and driving durable engineering fixes.

• Work with vendors, machine shops, and fabrication partners to produce custom hardware and manage technical build quality.

• Contribute to design standards, documentation, and validation practices that support repeatable station deployments.

You Might Thrive in This Role If You

• Have strong experience developing mechanical or electromechanical hardware for complex physical systems.

• Have designed equipment, fixtures, workcells, test systems, automation hardware, or similar operator-facing environments.

• Are comfortable moving from ambiguous requirements to hands-on prototypes and robust released designs.

• Bring sound judgment around mechanical design, DFM/DFA, serviceability, durability, ergonomics, and real-world use conditions.

• Work effectively across engineering and operations teams and enjoy solving problems that show up in live physical environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in robotics, automation, advanced manufacturing, test systems, or high-complexity hardware environments.

• Familiarity with CAD, prototyping, fabrication methods, design documentation, and issue tracking.

• Experience developing hardware intended for repeated daily use in operational settings.

• Experience working with external suppliers, machine shops, or contract fabricators.

Workplace & Location

This role is based in San Francisco, CA and will require substantial in-person presence to support hardware development, validation, and deployment.

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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