Android Systems Engineer, Consumer Devices

ABOUT THE TEAM The Consumer Devices team is building a new generation of AI-native experiences that bring OpenAI’s technology closer to people throughout their day. We are exploring how AI can become deeply integrated into the devices people already use—understanding context, helping users accomplish tasks, coordinating across apps and services, and making use of capabilities that are uniquely available on the device. Our work spans software, devices, platform technologies, and strategic partnerships. We operate as a highly collaborative, fast-moving team focused on turning ambitious ideas into reliable products that can reach people at significant scale. ABOUT THE ROLE As an Android Systems Engineer, you will help define and build the Android platform capabilities behind the next generation of AI-powered consumer experiences. This is not a traditional application-only Android role. You will work across the Android stack, using system-level APIs, device capabilities, platform integrations, and OEM-specific functionality to create experiences that would be difficult or impossible to build as a conventional mobile application. You will help determine what becomes possible when an AI assistant is deeply integrated with a mobile device: how it understands what is happening, interacts naturally with the user, connects across apps and services, and helps complete multi-step tasks. You will work closely with product, design, AI, backend, platform, and external device partners to take new concepts from prototype to production. The role requires strong technical judgment, product intuition, and comfort navigating areas where the platform, APIs, and product patterns are still evolving. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of four days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL: - Build deeply integrated Android experiences: Design and implement product experiences that take advantage of Android platform capabilities. - Work across the Android platform: Develop against Android framework and system APIs, system services, lifecycle and background execution primitives, inter-process communication, permissions, notifications, intents, and other platform capabilities. - Unlock device capabilities: Identify and use capabilities such as audio, camera, sensors, connectivity, location, notifications, credentials, and other device signals to enable useful, context-aware AI experiences. - Build agentic mobile experiences: Develop systems that allow AI-powered experiences to help users complete multi-step tasks and coordinate actions across applications, services, and device functionality. - Create scalable abstractions: Turn device-specific capabilities into well-designed platform layers and reusable components that can support multiple Android devices, OEMs, form factors, and product experiences. - Prototype new interaction models: Rapidly explore new Android capabilities, APIs, and device features to understand what is technically possible and help shape product direction. - Own experiences end to end: Take ideas from early technical exploration through architecture, implementation, testing, launch, and iteration in production. - Build for reliability and performance: Ensure experiences remain fast, power-efficient, resilient, and reliable across a diverse Android device ecosystem. - Design for privacy and security: Carefully handle permissions, user data, device access, authentication, and system capabilities while maintaining clear user control and trust. - Partner across disciplines: Work closely with product, design, research, backend, AI, systems, and partner engineering teams to turn emerging AI capabilities into cohesive consumer experiences. - Help define the future platform: Stay current with new Android releases, APIs, device capabilities, and ecosystem developments, and use that knowledge to identify opportunities for entirely new product experiences. YOU MIGHT THRIVE IN THIS ROLE IF YOU: - Have deep experience building and shipping high-quality Android software used by real customers. - Have strong knowledge of the Android platform beyond UI and application development, including framework APIs, system services, process and application lifecycle, permissions, IPC, background execution, and device capabilities. - Are highly proficient in Kotlin and/or Java and comfortable working across a large Android codebase. - Have experience working with AOSP, Android framework internals, system applications, privileged APIs, device software, or OEM-specific Android integrations. - Have experience integrating software with hardware or device capabilities and enjoy debugging problems that cross application, operating-system, and device boundaries. - Understand the realities of building across the Android ecosystem, including OS versions, device configurations, OEM customizations, permissions, power management, and platform fragmentation. - Care deeply about product quality and user experience, not just technical correctness. - Think creatively about what new platform capabilities make possible and enjoy turning emerging technology into intuitive consumer experiences. - Thrive in ambiguous, rapidly changing environments where the right technical and product approach is not obvious at the outset. - Take ownership of problems, develop strong points of view, and can independently drive work from exploration through production. - Enjoy 0→1 product development and are energized by building experiences for which established patterns may not yet exist. - Stay current with new Android technologies, APIs, operating-system capabilities, and broader developments across the mobile ecosystem. - Collaborate effectively with internal teams and external platform or device partners. 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 https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf. Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. 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. 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