Physical Network & Structured Cabling Engineer

Compute - San Francisco, Seattle, and US - Remote

About the Team

OpenAI is on a bold mission to build the world’s most advanced AI infrastructure. We are seeking a Data Center Network and Structured Cabling Engineer with 10+ years of experience in designing and implementing optimized network and structured cabling solutions at large data centers buildings and data center campuses.

The Data Center Engineering team is central to this mission defining infrastructure strategyance benchmarks, and developing reference designs that enable rapid, scalable global deployment.

As part of this team, you will help design and deliver next-generation data center infrastructure optimized for AI workloads. You’ll collaborate across research, site selection, design, construction, commissioning, hardware engineering, deployment, operations, and global partners to bring OpenAI’s infrastructure vision to life.

Role Summary

As a Physical Network & Structured Cabling Engineerance, reliability, and scalability.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and specify physical network infrastructure across data center buildings and campuses, including fiber and copper cabling, network rooms, rack layouts, cable trays, and duct bank pathways. Coordinate with other engineering disciplines to ensure network infrastructure space, power, cooling, and operational requirements are incorporated into the overall design
• Develop standards, reference designs, and installation guidelines for structured cabling and physical network deployments.
• Translate logical network architectures and hardware connectivity requirements into scalable physical designs, including fiber topology, port connectivity, patching, redundancy, and capacity planning, in partnership with network engineering and operations teams.
• Provide technical direction to design consultants, cabling vendors, and installation contractors, resolving scope gaps and ensuring designs are constructible and meet network requirements.
• Define installation quality and acceptance criteria, and oversee inspection, testing, commissioning, and turnover of structured cabling systems.
• Lead physical network design reviewsance with design and operational requirements.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues during build, commissioning, and handover phases to ensure network readiness.
• Develop and maintain physical network documentation, including design requirements, drawings, port maps, cable schedules, bills of materials, labeling standards, and as-built records.
• Provide feedback to design and operations teams to drive continuous improvement of physical network standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Telecommunications, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience designing and delivering physical network infrastructure and structured cabling systems for large-scale data centers, including responsibility for design decisions, construction coordination, and operational readiness.
• Strong understanding of data center network topologies and high-speed optical connectivity, including transceivers, fiber types, breakout configurations, connector and polarity schemes, and optical loss budgets.
• Expertise in industry standards such as ANSI/TIA, BICSI and other relevant structured cabling guidelines.
• Proven ability to coordinate with cross-functional teams and external vendors on large-scale projects.
• Strong skills in reviewing and interpreting technical drawings, cable schedules, and documentation management.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Willingness to travel frequently to global data center sites.

Preferred Skills

• Master’s degree in Engineering, or relevant certifications such as BICSI, RCDD, or equivalent.
• Experience with hyperscale cloudance computing environments.
• Proficiency in 2D and 3D engineering tools (e.g., CAD, Revit) for infrastructure design and clash detection analysis.
• Experience with structured connectivity data and automation for generating and validating port maps, cable schedules, bills of materials, and labels.
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills for physical layer systems and issues.

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 the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employeration, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable lawation technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Compensation

$257K – $327K + Offers Equity

The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factorsance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees, and the following benefits.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
• Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
• Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)
• Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
• 13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)
• Mental health and wellness support
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
• Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth
• Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
• Relocation support for eligible employees
• Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.

More details about our benefits are available to candidates during the hiring process.

This role is at-will and OpenAI reserves the right to modify base pay and other compensation components at any time based on individual performance, team or company results, or market conditions.