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OpenAI's Hardware organization is seeking a Product Reliability Engineer to own reliability engineering for advanced IT hardware systems, from printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) through compute and networking trays, systems, and fully integrated racks. You will translate operating conditions and service-life goals into reliability requirements, design and execute qualification tests, and drive failure analysis and corrective-action verification from development through production and field deployment.
Key Responsibilities:
- Define reliability requirements and targets for PCBAs, trays, systems, and racks using mission profiles, expected service life, operating environments, duty cycles, and availability goals.
- Drive design-for-reliability reviews with electrical, mechanical, and thermal engineers using FMEA/DFMEA and physics-of-failure methods to prioritize risks and recommend improvements.
- Own reliability qualification plans from new product introduction through production, defining test coverage, sample sizes, stress conditions, duration, and pass/fail criteria.
- Develop and execute accelerated life and environmental tests including temperature cycling, humidity exposure, power cycling, shock, vibration, and transport testing under representative workloads.
- Analyze life-test and field data using Weibull models, acceleration models, and confidence intervals to estimate failure rates and reliability against targets.
- Lead failure investigations from symptom reproduction through physical root cause analysis, maintaining failure reporting and corrective-action records.
- Review supplier reliability plans and evidence for PCBs, components, assemblies, cables, connectors, and cooling components.
- Work hands-on with internal and partner labs to develop fixtures, instrumentation, and test methods, including on-site support at manufacturing partners.
- Partner with manufacturing and quality engineers to establish reliability screens, burn-in procedures, and ongoing reliability testing.
- Evaluate reliability risks from assembly and integration including board strain, solder-joint damage, connector mating, cable routing, fastener preload, and thermal interfaces.
- Plan reliability test resources, lab capacity, hardware samples, and schedules across programs with engineering teams and manufacturing partners.
- Present qualification results, unresolved failure modes, and residual risk at design and release reviews with evidence-based readiness recommendations.
- Assess reliability impact and define targeted requalification for design, component, supplier, manufacturing process, and firmware changes.
- Track field returns and fleet failure trends with service and data center teams to prioritize corrective actions and inform future designs.
- Validate serviceability and repeated assembly or maintenance operations, assessing how hardware failures and redundancy affect rack availability.
Requirements:
- Hands-on reliability engineering experience with advanced IT hardware such as AI/HPC servers, networking equipment, or storage systems spanning PCBAs, electromechanical assemblies, and integrated racks.
- Experience designing, instrumenting, and executing hardware reliability tests, debugging failures in the lab, and translating results into practical improvements.
- Understanding of failure mechanisms in electronic assemblies including solder fatigue, PCB and laminate damage, connector wear, corrosion, and thermal or mechanical degradation.
- Ability to turn mission profiles and failure risks into qualification plans, select defensible sample sizes and stress levels, and explain assumptions and limits of accelerated testing.
- Experience leading reliability qualification through development and production milestones, balancing sample availability, lab capacity, schedule, and evidence for release decisions.
- Direct experience working with component suppliers, joint design manufacturers, contract manufacturers, and external test labs.
- Proficiency in design for reliability, FMEA/DFMEA, and physics-of-failure methods across electrical, mechanical, and thermal interfaces.
- Experience with structured failure analysis and corrective action using methods such as 8D, supported by electrical diagnostics, microscopy, X-ray, cross-section analysis, or specialist labs.
- Ability to analyze reliability and life-test data including censored data, Weibull distributions, and confidence bounds using tools such as Python, R, JMP, or equivalent statistical software.
- Experience with high-power electronics, dense interconnects, or liquid-cooled hardware including thermal interfaces, leak integrity, material compatibility, and serviceability.
- Strong communication skills to present technical findings and uncertainty clearly, distinguish verified root cause from hypotheses, and prioritize reliability risks.
Note: Candidates may need to meet certain legal status requirements to comply with U.S. export control laws and regulations.
