Software Engineer, Privacy Engineering (Lawful Access)

Security \- London, UK

About the Team

The Privacy Engineering team builds secure, reliable systems that help OpenAI meet its legal obligations while protecting user data. We partner closely with Legal and engineering teams across OpenAI to support lawful data access requests and other critical legal workflows. Our work turns complex, high\-stakes processes into auditable and dependable technical systems with clear human oversight and strong privacy and security controls.

About the Role

We’re looking for a full\-stack Software Engineer to build the internal tools and data pipelines that power lawful data access request workflows and Legal Operations. You will work across product and data systems to make authorized retrieval and case handling accurate, efficient, and auditable. This role is well suited to someone who enjoys translating ambiguous operational requirements into durable systems, cares deeply about sensitive\-data handling, and wants to improve both technical reliability and the day\-to\-day experience of the people operating these workflows.

In this role, you will:

• Design, build, and operate backend systems and workflow tooling for the full lifecycle of lawful data access requests, from intake and scoping through authorized retrieval, review, preparation, and audit.


• Build reliable data pipelines and interfaces across products and data stores so authorized teams can locate and handle the right records accurately and reproducibly.


• Implement least\-privilege access, approval gates, provenance, audit trails, data minimization, and safe failure modes for sensitive workflows.


• Partner with Legal and Legal Operations to translate legal and operational requirements into clear technical designs and intuitive operator experiences.


• Identify responsible automation opportunities that reduce repetitive work while preserving human review, judgment, and accountability.


• Own production systems through testing, observability, incident response, documentation, and continuous reliability improvements.


• Help define the architecture and roadmap for reusable privacy and legal\-infrastructure foundations as OpenAI’s products and obligations evolve.

• Have experience building or operating systems for lawful data access requests and understand the domain’s legal\-process lifecycle, privacy and security constraints, auditability requirements, and operational sensitivities.


• Strong backend engineering fundamentals and experience building production services or data\-intensive systems.


• Ability to reason carefully about correctness, authorization, security, and privacy when working with sensitive data.


• A track record of turning ambiguous requirements into pragmatic plans and communicating technical tradeoffs clearly.


• End\-to\-end ownership, including operating what you build, and comfort learning unfamiliar products and domains.


• Care for operator experience and a drive to make complex workflows safer, clearer, and more efficient.


• Experience collaborating across Engineering, Legal, operations, Privacy, and Security stakeholders.

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

$347K – $385K \+ Offers Equity

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