Artificial intelligence
10 OpenAI backend engineers
These ten current OpenAI backend engineers hold Member of Technical Staff roles at the company, and their profiles describe backend, API, distributed systems or data platform work. A reader can learn what backend engineering work at OpenAI involves from people who have done it.
Professionals to explore
01—10André Pinto
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since January 2026, based in the United Kingdom; his profile describes a backend engineer with experience in low latency, distributed systems, infrastructure, data engineering and SRE. He was a Staff Software Engineer at The Trade Desk (2022–2026) and a Senior Software Engineer at Spotify (2020–2022).
Daniel K.
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since January 2024, and his profile describes him as a senior backend engineer specialized in building robust, scalable and maintainable product architectures. He was a Staff Software Engineer at Coinbase from 2021 to 2024 and a Senior Software Engineer at Twitch from 2015 to 2021.
Harrison Fang
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since June 2026, and his profile describes him as a backend software engineer with experience in cloud infrastructure and applied machine learning. He was Technical Lead Manager (2022–2026) and Senior Software Engineer (2021–2022) at Helm, and a Senior Software Engineer at Google (2019–2021).
JiaJie Ye
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since January 2025; the profile describes a backend software engineer with 10+ years of experience building distributed systems. Earlier roles include Software Engineer at Rockset (acquired by OpenAI) from 2022 to 2024, at Meta from 2021 to 2022 and at Facebook from 2019 to 2021.
Joey Pereira
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since March 2024; his OpenAI role description mentions all things Spark, Kafka, and beyond. At Stripe he was Staff Software Engineer - Cash & Transaction Speed (2023–2024) and Software Engineer - Ledger platform (2018–2023), and he was a Software Engineering Intern at Cockroach Labs in 2017.
Min Zhou
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since November 2025; the profile describes over 20 years in software engineering, specializing in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure and high-performance backend platforms. Earlier roles include Senior Staff Engineer at LinkedIn (2024–2025), Staff Software Engineer at Databricks (2020–2024) and Senior Software Development Engineer at AWS (2016–2020).
Saraj Munjal
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since April 2026; his profile describes five years building backend infrastructure, frameworks and services using cloud platforms and various data stores, with interests in storage and distributed systems. He was a Senior Software Engineer at Robinhood (2021–2026) and a Software Engineer at Google (2019–2021).
Sherwin Wu
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since September 2022; his OpenAI role description says he manages the API team. Before OpenAI he worked in Engineering (2020–2022) and as Product Lead (2016–2020) at Opendoor, and was a Software Engineer at Quora from 2014 to 2016.
Tze-Nam C.
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since January 2025, after a Senior Software Engineer role at Google from 2018 to 2025. The profile describes an experienced software engineer focusing on full-stack and API backend development of enterprise software and web applications.
Yuliy Pisetsky
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since January 2025; his profile describes him as a backend-focused software engineer and says he spent five years helping to run Facebook's main web fleet. He was a Staff Software Engineer at Discord from 2021 to 2024 and a Software Engineer at Facebook from 2011 to 2021.
Choose the right perspective
Match the person's backend specialty to your question, since API design, data streaming, storage and large web fleets each raise different problems. Consider where each person worked before OpenAI and how recently they joined, because that shapes which scaling problems they can compare from experience.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How do you design backend services and APIs when usage can grow many times over in a few months?
- 02What changed in how you think about reliability and capacity after moving to an AI company?
- 03Which backend tools or architectural patterns would you choose again, and which would you avoid?
Reaching OpenAI backend engineers
How can I contact one of these OpenAI backend engineers?
Pick one of the 10 people on this page and choose "Book a paid call", or describe your project to find others. You offer a fee for a 15-minute call or a written answer, Instant Expert finds the person's work email and sends the invitation, and they decide whether to accept. The list covers 1 company: OpenAI, based on profile data retrieved on October 8, 2026. Being listed here doesn't mean someone has agreed to take calls.
How much does it cost to reach OpenAI backend engineers?
You choose the offer, starting at $5 per person. It includes Instant Expert's 20% fee, so an offer that pays the person $100 costs you $125. You're charged only when the person books the call or sends the answer.
What if they don't reply?
You pay nothing. Instant Expert sends follow-up reminders, and if the person hasn't booked or answered within 7 days, the request expires and any hold on your card is released. You can invite several of the 10 people on this list at once and cap your total spend, so you pay only for the ones who accept.
Can an AI agent ask one of these OpenAI backend engineers a question?
Yes. An agent with a USDC wallet on Base can ask one question without an Instant Expert account. It names the person, for example by the LinkedIn URL on this page, and pays per ask over x402 (HTTP 402). The person answers in writing or by voice note, and if nobody answers within 7 days, the payment goes back to the wallet automatically. x402 docs
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot and may describe past or present roles. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.
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