Structural Engineer - Data Center Design

About the Role:

OpenAI is seeking a Data Center Structural Engineer with over 10 years of experience to join our team. This role is crucial for our mission to build advanced AI infrastructure, focusing on designing and implementing optimized structural solutions for mission-critical buildings and large electrical and mechanical equipment.

The Data Center Engineering team spearheads our infrastructure strategy, drives technical innovation, and collaborates with research to establish performance benchmarks. We also develop reference designs for rapid, scalable global deployment.

As a member of this team, you will be instrumental in designing and delivering next-generation data center infrastructure, specifically optimized for AI workloads. Your collaboration will extend across various teams including research, site selection, design, construction, commissioning, hardware engineering, deployment, operations, and global partners, all working to realize OpenAI's infrastructure vision.

Role Summary

As a Structural Engineer, you will be responsible for the structural design of OpenAI's data centers from early concept through delivery, while also providing ongoing engineering support to operations. You will develop reference design standards, Owner's Project Requirements (OPRs), and Basis of Design (BODs), oversee design partners, and ensure that our facilities meet business, technical, and resiliency requirements.

The ideal candidate brings deep experience designing large-scale data centers or manufacturing facilities, applying modern construction technologies and methods across both brownfield and greenfield campuses. You should be skilled in building and evaluating TCO models and budgets, performing test-fit studies, developing 3D models, coordinating multidisciplinary services, and managing design documentation.

This is a high-visibility role with the opportunity to lead transformative projects that will shape the next generation of AI infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain structural design standards, specifications, templates, and reference models for hyperscale AI data centers.

• Lead structural analysis and design for new builds, expansions, and retrofits, ensuring compliance with global codes and internal standards.

• Align structural design with mechanical, electrical, and architectural systems through close collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.

• Perform structural load analysis to support high-density AI computing environments.

• Review and approve design deliverables, calculations, and construction documents for accuracy and constructability.

• Provide field engineering support during construction and commissioning, resolving issues and validating as-built conditions.

• Oversee building and campus structural design, reviewing specification requirements, submittal drawings, shop drawings and proposals across all project phases.

• Serve as the primary structural engineering lead and provide technical support for hyperscale partner projects.

• Translate operational requirements into design criteria from concept through delivery and daily operation.

• Review and validate structural integration of critical data center systems and prefabricated equipment skids to ensure reliability and performance.

• Evaluate building envelope solutions and vendor proposals for quality, cost, and constructability.

• Assess and guide the use of structural and engineering software tools.

• Collaborate with vendors to select, procure, and manage key materials (e.g., precast panels, structural precast, steel, roofing, and other systems).

• Ensure seamless integration of structural elements with power, cooling, fire suppression, and cabling infrastructure.

• Contribute to the development of operational workflows from design requirements through commissioning, pilot testing, and deployment.

• Provide technical direction to design teams, contractors, and vendors ensuring compliance with codes, standards, and best practices.

• Oversee quality assurance processes, mitigate risks, and ensure adherence to safety and operational standards.

• Capture lessons learned and integrate them into future reference designs to improve cost, efficiency, and performance.

• Support site evaluations during land acquisition and early planning to identify structural risks and opportunities.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Structural Engineering.

• 10+ years of experience in structural design for data centers and large industrial projects.

• Strong knowledge of building codes, seismic design, and high-load structural systems.

• Proficiency with structural analysis software

• Proven ability to coordinate across multiple engineering disciplines and manage external partners.

• Willingness to travel to global project sites for design coordination and field validation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Structural Engineering.

• Professional Engineer (PE) license.

• Experience in hyperscale data center design or high-density industrial environments.

• Familiarity with fast-track design-build project delivery models.

• Strong communication and documentation skills for effective multi-stakeholder alignment.

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.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act. 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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We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

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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 Range: $310K - $460K