Harness Engineer

About the role

This role is about the physical nervous system of advanced robots: the custom wire harnesses that connect every sensor, actuator, and processor inside them. As a Harness Engineer within OpenAI's Research department, you will design and integrate custom wire harnesses and flexible printed circuits for the robotics team, managing the entire lifecycle of harness development from the initial concept to validation and final system integration. The work spans the full development path, from laying out the architecture of where every conductor runs, to building prototypes by hand, to validating reliability, and to working with manufacturers to bring the design to production.

Because robotics hardware is still evolving quickly at OpenAI, you will not just be executing existing designs; you will be helping to define the standards and workflows that future robotic platforms will use. That means strong engineering judgment, deep understanding of connector and wire behavior, and the ability to collaborate closely with mechanical, electrical, and manufacturing engineers, as well as test engineers who will validate your designs. This is a hardware role for someone who likes to get their hands on the actual hardware and who has an eye for engineering durable designs that survive in real robots.

Key facts

What you'll do

You will lead the architectural design and integration of custom harnesses and flexible printed circuits (FPC), taking responsibility for the routing, connectors, and terminations that carry power and signals through the system. You will construct and validate prototypes through hands-on setup, debugging, characterization, and iterative improvements, testing your designs before they are scaled. You will create the test methods and infrastructure needed to assess harness performance and reliability in the real world. Test data will be analyzed to pinpoint limitations, failure modes, and opportunities for design improvement.

The work extends into manufacturing: you will work with manufacturing and suppliers to transition designs from prototype to production-ready assemblies, and you will contribute to harness sourcing strategy, vendor qualification, prototype builds, and supply chain development. You will document designs, interfaces, validation outputs, and engineering decisions so the systems are maintainable over the long term. Finally, you will help establish engineering standards, integration practices, and development workflows for the next generation of robotic platforms.

Requirements

You need a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related field, and 7 or more years of experience designing and scaling custom wire harnesses or FPCs. You should have a strong understanding of various connector types and wire types, and proficiency with CAD and PLM tools such as NX and Teamcenter (or equivalent systems). You should have experience developing validation plans, reliability testing strategies, and failure analysis workflows, since the difference between a prototype and a product is the proof that it will survive the service environment.

Nice to have

• Experience scaling hardware systems from prototype through EVT/DVT/PVT phases into full production.
• Experience with robotics, aerospace, or automotive harness manufacturing.
• Background in high-performance cable design or signal integrity.

Skills & tools

• CAD
• PLM (NX, Teamcenter)
• Harness design and routing
• FPC / FPC design
• Prototyping and failure analysis
• Supplier and vendor qualification processes
• Reliability and validation testing

Practical notes

• Relocation assistance is offered for new employees.
• This role requires being in the office 4 days per week.
• Background checks are administered in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.
• OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities on request.

This is a rare chance to define the electrical architecture of advanced robots from the ground up. The role is deeply hands-on, deeply technical, and deeply rewarding: the harnesses you engineer today will be carrying power and signals in real robots tomorrow. If you appreciate the craft of making complex hardware robust enough for real-world use, and want to build standards for a new platform, this is the role for you.