How to get in · ~$300B
OpenAI
The biggest platform surface in AI, hiring builders who make integration effortless.
The door
Forward Deployed / DevEx Engineer
- · Forward Deployed Software Engineer
- · Developer Experience Engineer
- · Solutions and applied engineers
The bar
Production-grade AI systems after the deal is signed, and empathy for the developer on the other side of the docs. Early-stage startup engineers are explicitly good fits.
Who actually gets in
pattern 01
Engineers from small startups who owned whole systems alone
pattern 02
Builders who publish migrations, teardowns, and integration guides developers actually use
pattern 03
People with a shipped product on the API, not a certificate about it
Skills that matter here
Each links to the live demand board with the top certification per skill.
The first-principles path
01
Pick the door
Not a job title, a door: the role archetype that hires proof over pedigree. It is listed on every page below.
02
Study who gets in
Each company selects on a pattern. Read it. Becoming the pattern beats persuading the recruiter.
03
Build the artifact
One purpose-built project on their platform, deployed, demoable in one link. The spec is on each page.
04
Publish and route it
Post it publicly and tag the team, then get it to a named human: a warm intro beats the portal by an order of magnitude.
05
Apply with proof attached
Now the application is a formality confirming what the team already saw.
Your artifact for OpenAI
Rebuild one of your own live products on the Responses or Agents API and publish the full teardown: what broke, what surprised you, what you would fix in their docs.