About OpenAI

OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We build models and products that help people learn, create, and solve problems—and we work to do so safely and responsibly.

About the Team

The Community team focuses on finding exceptional power users of our tools and turning real usage into stories and signals that shape both product direction and how the world understands OpenAI. We do that by learning directly from users, then working together to package up insights and use cases into formats that can travel: playbooks, webpages, launch assets, event series and clear “here’s how people actually use this” guidance.

About the role

We’re hiring a full-time contractor to help us refine and scale developer & builder student engagement across the U.S. and Canada, connecting student builders with OpenAI’s developer platform.

The north star: make Codex the most loved agentic coding tool for student builders, while building a repeatable loop for high-signal product feedback and shareable student use cases.

This is a technical community lead role at the intersection of developer experience and community. You will be the bridge between the CS student and hacker ecosystem and OpenAI. You will engage directly with student developers, help them build real applications with Codex and OpenAI APIs, and translate what they build into product insights and technical stories that inspire other student developers.

You’ll work closely with Community, DevEx, product, and education teams to ensure student developers have the best possible experience building with OpenAI.

What you’ll do

Phase 1: Build a base of relationships, insights, and use cases

● Recruit and run a cohort of high-agency student builders working with Codex and adjacent AI developer tools.

● Facilitate weekly show-and-tell style sessions that surface workflows, friction, and product opportunities.

● Help students debug projects during sprints and support them in building real applications.

● Capture and synthesize developer feedback into actionable insights for product and developer experience teams.

● Identify emerging patterns in how students use AI coding and agentic tools, and surface those signals to product and developer experience teams.

Phase 2: Scale on campus engagement & evangelism

● Identify where OpenAI should plug into existing student ecosystems such as hackathons, developer clubs, and AI meetups.

● Support student leaders in running build days, hackathons, and workshops using OpenAI tools.

● Develop a repeatable playbook for recruiting and supporting student developer communities.

● Build a pipeline of campus builders and ambassadors who can run Codex-focused programming on their campuses.

● Support student leaders in running build days, hackathons, and workshops using OpenAI tools, and help connect standout student builders to relevant OpenAI events or community programs.

Ongoing: Developer content and storytelling

● Collect and amplify great user content with students —such as tutorials, walkthroughs, and code samples—showing how students are building with OpenAI.

○ Partner with Developer Social, comms, and Educations teams to surface standout student projects and use cases through blog posts, demos, and social storytelling.

● Observe how students are using AI developer tools (including Codex, the Responses API, and other agentic systems) in real workflows.

○ Synthesize patterns, use cases, and early signals from campus communities into reports and artifacts that can inform Product and Education strategy.

● Collaborate with product, DevEx, social, creative, events, and marketing teams to highlight compelling student developer projects.

● Translate student projects into stories and technical examples that inspire other developers.

What success looks like in the first 90 days

● A strong first cohort of student developers producing compelling projects and actionable product feedback.

● A pipeline of student leaders who can run Codex programming on their campuses. Bring the most thoughtful, reliable group closer to our team to participate in testing and developer discussions.

● A set of working demos, example projects, or tutorials that help other students learn how to build with Codex.

● You will succeed if students see you as someone who speaks their language and is their champion—a fellow builder who understands and is deeply curious about their tools, workflows, and ambition.

Qualifications

Must-haves

● Strong technical background with the ability to build real projects using modern developer tools.

● Experience building applications using APIs, developer platforms, or AI models.

● Comfortable live-coding, debugging, and demonstrating developer workflows.

● Familiarity with GitHub workflows, modern dev stacks, and AI developer tooling.

● Experience engaging with developer communities such as hackathons, open source projects, or developer clubs.

● Strong communication skills and the ability to turn technical insights into clear examples and demos.

● High ownership and the ability to operate effectively in ambiguous environments.

Nice-to-haves

● Experience building projects with LLMs, agents, or AI developer tools.

● Experience creating technical content such as tutorials, demos, blog posts, or videos.

● Experience organizing developer events, hackathons, or campus programs.

● Familiarity with the AI coding tool landscape and how developers evaluate different tools.

Logistics

● Engagement: Full-time contractor (40 hrs/week), with potential to extend based on impact.

● Contract period: 12 months

● Rate: $125

● Location: Preference NYC or SF, open to remote

● Collaboration: You’ll work closely with Community (ChatGPT Labs), Codex/DevEx partners, Events, and Education stakeholders.