The highest published salary-range top in OpenAI's October 14 snapshot is $850,000. One posting carries it. The more useful split is 636 out of 636: every posting with a U.S. primary location shows pay, while 160 of 169 with a non-U.S. primary location do not. That split tells you where the board can help you negotiate, and where it goes quiet.

What the board showed on October 14

Raydar pulled OpenAI's Ashby job board through its public posting API during the morning review on October 14, 2026, then checked sample role pages on OpenAI's linked company careers pages. The snapshot held 805 postings (804 full-time, one contract) under 763 distinct title strings. San Francisco was the primary location on 553.

These are postings observed that morning, not 805 open seats. Ashby publication dates run from May 2023 to October 14, 2026, and they don't show when a position was approved or whether it's new headcount.

Of the 805, 645 displayed a salary range: 632 annual ranges in U.S. dollars, nine annual ranges in pounds, Canadian dollars or Singapore dollars, and four hourly U.S. rates. The other 160 showed no range, and all 160 had a primary location outside the United States.

How OpenAI labels the number

On the role pages Raydar checked, OpenAI's careers site shows the figure under Compensation and calls it "the salary range listed above." The same paragraph says "the base pay offered may vary" with location, skills and experience. It also describes equity, bonuses for eligible employees and benefits as additional compensation. That's OpenAI's description, as on Research Engineer, Privacy.

Equity shows up as "Offers Equity" on 630 of the 645 postings with pay, with no grant value on any of them. Commission also needs a separate reading. 23 sales and customer-facing postings show "Offers Commission," and 21 give no amount. Two Account Director postings, including Digital Natives Growth, show a commission line of $189,000 to $220,500 that matches a salary range on the same posting. The page doesn't explain the match, so don't read it as a target.

On Account Director, Startups Expansion, the $378,000 to $441,000 figure sits under salary-range language, with commission separately flagged and unpriced. Do not relabel it as on-target earnings without a role-specific explanation. Raydar's Anthropic pay census covers a different employer's labels and an October 7 snapshot.

What OpenAI posts, by role

The 632 annual U.S.-dollar salary summaries cover different functions, levels and locations. They are published ranges, not employee pay or accepted offers. Repeated bands make role-by-role comparisons more useful than a company-wide median.

Of 142 U.S.-dollar postings with Software Engineer in the title (forward deployed titles excluded):

So 68 of 142 sit on three repeated bands. That leaves 74 with other ranges; a familiar title alone does not identify its band.

Other title families in the same snapshot:

Raydar's FDE salary comparison puts those FDE numbers next to startup bands, and the OpenAI robotics inventory covers one team in more depth.

Where the data needs caution

  • Outside the U.S.: 160 of 169 postings with a non-U.S. primary location show no range. A missing number isn't evidence of lower pay.
  • Location tiers: Nine postings carry two or three location tiers in the API data. Security Program Manager shows one summary line of $129,600 to $310,000. The rendered posting separates three tiers: $162,000 to $310,000 in San Francisco, New York City, Seattle or Washington, DC; $145,800 to $279,000 in Zone A; and $129,600 to $248,000 in Zone B. The summary combines the lowest floor and highest top across tiers, so it is not one location's band.
  • The $0 floor: Research Engineer, Privacy shows $0 to $500,000 on both Ashby and OpenAI's site. It's a disclosed range, but it can't support a typical-band conclusion, and the page doesn't say whether it's an error.
  • Hourly roles: Four U.S. postings pay hourly, such as IT Support Specialist in Seattle at $60.58 to $108.17 an hour.

What it means for candidates

For a posting with a U.S. primary location, the snapshot supplies a range. Confirm the tier for your location. Use it. Ask which level maps to which part of the band, because $266,000 to $445,000 spans $179,000 and the board won't tell you where you land.

Then get the relevant unpriced parts in writing: if equity is offered, the grant and vesting, the bonus eligibility the page mentions, and for sales roles, the commission target, quota and ramp. For a non-U.S. primary-location posting without a range, ask for one on the first call. Nine non-U.S. postings did disclose pay; currencies were kept separate.

A board snapshot shows what OpenAI published on October 14. It can't tell you where offers close, whether a posting is new headcount, or what the equity is worth. Get those answers before you compare offers.

Sources and method: OpenAI Ashby posting API with compensation, independently rechecked October 14, 2026 (805 postings). Counts use each posting's primary location and summary Salary component. Two Abu Dhabi primary locations lack a country field and are classified by the displayed location. Multi-location postings are counted once; nine summary envelopes span multiple pay tiers. No currencies were converted, no hourly rates annualized, and no employee-pay medians inferred. Title families use title text; 763 distinct strings are not 763 distinct positions. Linked sample pages and the three rendered Security Program Manager tiers were checked the same morning.