Applied AI Engineer – Startup Focus

About the role

The Applied AI Engineering team at OpenAI is looking for a technically proficient, business‑minded engineer to work with strategic startup customers in Tokyo. You will guide them from ideation through development, delivery, and scaling, helping them extract maximum value from the OpenAI API.

Key responsibilities

• Partner closely with strategic startup customers as their technical thought partner to build novel applications on OpenAI’s API, guiding them from ideation to scale.
• Provide proactive guidance to maximize business impact and accelerate application development, including experimentation and prototyping alongside customers.
• Synthesize and deliver high‑fidelity product and model feedback to OpenAI’s Product and Research teams.
• Contribute open‑source resources, codify best practices, and publish useful materials for the broader community.

Required profile

• 5+ years of experience as a software or ML engineer, preferably in a startup environment; founder or founding‑engineer experience is a plus.
• Passion for startups and ability to identify opportunities that increase customers’ business value using the OpenAI API.
• Fluent in both Japanese and English, with strong communication and collaboration skills across Sales, Solutions Engineering, Applied Research, and Product teams.
• Self‑starter attitude, able to own problems end‑to‑end and learn missing knowledge quickly.

Required skills

• Python
• JavaScript
• AI/LLM best practices
• OpenAI API integration and prototyping

What we offer

• Hybrid work model – three days per week in the Tokyo office.
• Relocation assistance for new employees.