Artificial intelligence
10 OpenAI software engineers
These ten current OpenAI software engineers hold Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer or Member of Technical Staff roles at the company. A reader can learn what software engineering work at OpenAI involves from people who have done it.
Professionals to explore
01—10Charlie Tong
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · OpenAI
Software Engineer at OpenAI since November 2024, a mid-level role in the Engineering and Technical department according to his profile. He was Founding Engineer at Eve from 2020 to 2024 and a Software Engineer at Rubrik from 2018 to 2020, and held software engineering internships at Google in 2016 and 2017.
Drew Youngwerth
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · OpenAI
Software Engineer at OpenAI since January 2025, listed in the Engineering and Technical department at a mid level. At Courier he was Staff Software Engineer (2024–2025) and Senior Software Engineer (2021–2024), and at VersaBuilt Robotics he was Director of Software Engineering from 2017 to 2021.
Hani M.
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · OpenAI
Software Engineer at OpenAI since September 2025, a mid-level role in the Engineering and Technical department. The profile also lists Software Engineer at Character.ai (2025), Co-Founder/CTO of ELI5 (2023–2024), and Software Engineer roles at Jane Street (2019–2023) and Shopify (2018).
Jay J.
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · OpenAI
Software Engineer at OpenAI since January 2025, based in San Francisco, with the profile headline Software Engineer @ OpenAI. The profile lists Software Engineer roles at startups (2023–2025), Meta (2022–2023), Microsoft (2021–2022) and Amazon Web Services (2019–2021).
Joseph Trasatti
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · OpenAI
Software Engineer at OpenAI since November 2024; his profile describes him as a full stack engineer working on Codex, and his OpenAI role description lists Textbox engineer (ChatGPT). He was a Product Engineer at Scale AI from 2022 to 2024 and an Associate Software Engineer at Capital One from 2021 to 2022, and co-founded AlgoRaven.
Maria McCulley
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · OpenAI
Software Engineer at OpenAI since December 2025, based in Seattle and listed in the Engineering and Technical department. She was a Software Engineer at Statsig from 2022 to 2025 and at Facebook from 2019 to 2022, after an internship at Facebook in 2018.
Michael Whitaker
LinkedInExperience: Senior Software Engineer · OpenAI
Senior Software Engineer at OpenAI since April 2023, based in Dallas. He was a Senior Software Engineer at Spotify from 2019 to 2023, a Full Stack Engineer at PROS from 2017 to 2019 and a Software Engineer at Accenture from 2014 to 2017, and his profile mentions building secure, multi-tenant APIs and designing data access and caching layers.
Nicholas Felt
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since September 2024; his profile describes him as a software engineer at OpenAI who was previously at Google for a decade. He was a Software Engineer at Google DeepMind in 2024 and a Software Engineer at Google from 2013 to 2017 and from 2017 to 2024.
Sean Williams
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff - Software Engineer · OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff - Software Engineer at OpenAI since April 2024, working remotely. He was an Engineering Manager at Cruise (2020–2024), a Software Engineer at Google (2016–2020) and a Production Engineer at Facebook (2013–2015), and was a Technical Advisor to Kloudfuse from 2021 to 2025.
Simon Oshikanlu
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · OpenAI
Software Engineer at OpenAI since December 2025, a mid-level role in the Engineering and Technical department. He was a Co-Founder of a stealth AI startup (2024–2025) and a Software Engineer at a stealth AI fintech startup (2023–2024), and held internships at Jane Street and Hudson River Trading.
Choose the right perspective
Pick someone whose earlier employer looks like yours, since an engineer who came from a large company, a trading firm or a small startup will compare the move to OpenAI in different terms. Weigh how long each person has been there: a 2025 hire can speak to the current hiring process, while someone who joined in 2023 or 2024 has seen more of how the work changed.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How do software engineers at an AI lab decide what to build and how fast to ship it?
- 02What surprised you most about the engineering culture compared with your previous company?
- 03What would you tell an engineer preparing to interview for a software role at an AI lab?
Reaching OpenAI software engineers
How can I contact one of these OpenAI software 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 software 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 software 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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