Physical Network & Structured Cabling Engineer

OpenAI is on a bold mission to build the world’s most advanced AI infrastructure. The Data Center Engineering team defines infrastructure strategy, drives technical innovation, works with research to set performance benchmarks, and develops reference designs for rapid, scalable global deployment. In this role, you will help design and deliver next-generation data center infrastructure optimized for AI workloads, collaborating across research, site selection, design, construction, commissioning, hardware engineering, deployment, operations, and global partners.

As a Physical Network & Structured Cabling Engineer, you will own the design, implementation, and quality assurance of structured cabling and physical network infrastructure across OpenAI’s global data center footprint. This role bridges design, construction, and operations, ensuring that every layer of our physical networking—from fiber trunks to copper patching—meets the highest standards of performance, reliability, and scalability.

• Design and specify physical network infrastructure across data center buildings and campuses, including fiber and copper cabling, network rooms, rack layouts, cable trays, and duct bank pathways.
• Coordinate with other engineering disciplines to ensure network infrastructure space, power, cooling, and operational requirements are incorporated into the overall design.
• Develop standards, reference designs, and installation guidelines for structured cabling and physical network deployments.
• Translate logical network architectures and hardware connectivity requirements into scalable physical designs, including fiber topology, port connectivity, patching, redundancy, and capacity planning.
• Provide technical direction to design consultants, cabling vendors, and installation contractors, resolving scope gaps and ensuring designs are constructible.
• Define installation quality and acceptance criteria, and oversee inspection, testing, commissioning, and turnover of structured cabling systems.
• Lead physical network design reviews, coordinate clash detection and resolution, and conduct site inspections to verify installation quality.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues during build, commissioning, and handover phases to ensure network readiness.
• Develop and maintain physical network documentation, including design requirements, drawings, port maps, cable schedules, bills of materials, labeling standards, and as-built records.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Telecommunications, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience designing and delivering physical network infrastructure and structured cabling systems for large-scale data centers.
• Strong understanding of data center network topologies and high-speed optical connectivity, including transceivers, fiber types, breakout configurations, connector and polarity schemes, and optical loss budgets.
• Expertise in industry standards such as ANSI/TIA, BICSI, and other relevant structured cabling guidelines.
• Proven ability to coordinate with cross-functional teams and external vendors on large-scale projects.
• Strong skills in reviewing and interpreting technical drawings, cable schedules, and documentation management.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Willingness to travel frequently to global data center sites.

• Master’s degree in Engineering, or relevant certifications such as BICSI, RCDD, or equivalent.
• Experience with hyperscale cloud, AI, or high-performance computing environments.
• Proficiency in 2D and 3D engineering tools (e.g., CAD, Revit) for infrastructure design and clash detection analysis.
• Experience with structured connectivity data and automation for generating and validating port maps, cable schedules, bills of materials, and labels.

Salary range: $257K – $327K per year, plus equity. OpenAI offers a comprehensive benefits package.

Apply through the OpenAI careers portal using the provided application link.