OpenAI Security Software Engineer at OpenAI designs and implements hardware-backed security software and firmware for device ecosystems. Focuses on hardening policy-to-HSM boundaries and developing cryptographic and secure firmware components.
Responsibilities
This is a hands-on software-engineering role. You will be expected to design systems, write and review production code, debug across hardware and software boundaries, and carry projects from initial requirements through deployment. It is not an HSM administration, PKI operations, compliance, or architecture-only position.
Design and implement security-critical software and firmware for HSMs, secure elements, trusted execution environments, and hardware roots of trust.
Build and harden the policy-to-HSM boundary responsible for authorizing certificate issuance and cryptographic signing operations.
Develop HSM trusted applications, firmware components, host interfaces, device drivers, SDKs, or cryptographic service integrations.
Implement or extend cryptographic interfaces such as PKCS#11, OpenSSL providers or engines, platform key-storage APIs, or comparable hardware-security interfaces.
Build firmware and software that cryptographically enforces key generation, provisioning, usage, rotation, recovery, and destruction policies.
Design and implement HSM-backed certificate authority, code-signing, key-management, and device-identity systems.
Build security capabilities supporting device attestation, secure boot, factory provisioning and restoration, user registration, and authentication.
Design controls that make trusted software and policy changes verifiable, auditable, and subject to appropriate multi-party authorization.
Write, review, test, and audit secure embedded software for resource-constrained environments.
Develop test harnesses, emulators, fuzzers, and fault-injection tooling to validate security properties and failure behavior.
Qualification
Deep programming experience in CA strong track record of designingHSM firmware or trusted applicationsHSM device driversPKCS#11 providers
Required
5+ years experience building secure embedded firmware for constrained environments
Deep programming experience in C, C++, or Rust.
You Might Thrive in This Role If You Have
A strong track record of designing, implementing, debugging, and shipping production systems software.
Hands-on experience developing security-critical software or firmware within, or directly adjacent to, an HSM, secure element, TEE, or hardware root of trust.
Experience developing one or more of the following:
HSM firmware or trusted applications
Cryptographic mechanisms or hardware-accelerated cryptographic services
HSM device drivers, host libraries, SDKs, or middleware
PKCS#11 providers, mechanisms, or integrations
Secure key-provisioning or key-injection protocols
HSM-backed certificate authority or code-signing systems
