OpenAI Offers Robotics Engineers Up to $500,000 in Base Salary
OpenAI is expanding its robotics push and offering some engineers base salaries of up to $500,000. Moreover, the company has increased the number of robotics openings as it builds teams across hardware, software, data collection, and testing.
OpenAI expands robotics hiring
OpenAI currently has 27 robotics positions listed, compared with 11 in May. In addition, the available jobs cover hardware development, software engineering, machine learning, firmware, data collection, and prototyping.
Rather than focusing only on software that controls robots, OpenAI wants employees who can design, build, and test physical systems. For example, the company is seeking actuator design engineers who can develop motors and mechanisms that move robotic joints.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is also hiring a lab technician to help ‘develop, build, test, and iterate on robotic systems,’ as well as a lawyer dedicated to the robotics team. Another position involves overseeing OpenAI’s ‘data collection facilities,’ highlighting the importance of gathering training data for physical machines.
Unlike large language models, robots cannot rely mainly on huge collections of information already available online. Instead, developers need examples showing how humans and machines interact with objects and environments in the physical world. Therefore, large-scale data collection could become a critical part of OpenAI’s robotics strategy.
Competition grows around physical AI
OpenAI’s expansion comes as investors pour billions of dollars into ‘physical AI,’ which combines advanced AI models with machines that operate in the real world. As a result, the company is entering a field that already includes heavily funded robotics projects from Tesla and Figure AI.
Tesla, for instance, is developing its humanoid Optimus robot. Meanwhile, Figure AI is also working on humanoid machines designed to perform physical tasks.
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has grown more explicit about OpenAI’s robotics ambitions in recent months, stating that the company will ‘definitely do a humanoid’ and ‘do other form factors as well.’
The robotics team is led by Aditya Ramesh, a longtime researcher best known for creating DALL·E, the company’s image generator, and later working on Sora, its AI video generator. Consequently, his role connects OpenAI’s earlier work in generative AI with its growing interest in machines that can interact with the physical world.
What could come next
OpenAI has explored robotics before. However, it shut down an earlier project in 2020 after developing a robotic hand capable of solving a Rubik’s Cube.
Now, its job postings provide some clues about the company’s renewed direction, although they do not reveal the final design of its robots. References to laser range finders and batteries, for example, ‘vaguely imply’ an untethered mobile robot.
Furthermore, Altman has identified data centers as a possible early environment for deploying robots. He has also suggested that robots could eventually perform household tasks as personal assistants.
For now, the hiring expansion shows that OpenAI is assembling expertise across multiple parts of the robotics stack. Therefore, its plans appear to extend beyond AI models alone and into the hardware, data, testing, and infrastructure required to build physical robotic systems.
