Job Description

Founding Applied ML Engineer

• Title of Role: Founding Applied ML Engineer
• Location: San Francisco, CA, Onsite
• Company Stage of Funding: Venture Round — Software Development
• Office Type: Onsite
• Salary: [To be confirmed with final candidates]

We're representing an early-stage AI company that operates at the intersection of speech, multilingual, and conversational AI. This company focuses on providing high-quality audio datasets and associated services that empower innovative AI applications, including voice assistants and speech recognition systems. As a founding team member, you will play a crucial role in shaping the technical direction and culture of the organization.

What You Will Do

• Design, build, and iterate on machine learning systems and pipelines for audio dataset creation and quality assurance at scale.
• Apply state-of-the-art models in automatic speech recognition (ASR), speaker diarization, text-to-speech (TTS), and multilingual NLP to tackle real-world data challenges.
• Collaborate with the founding team to define the ML roadmap and translate business needs into actionable technical solutions.
• Develop internal tooling and infrastructure to enhance dataset annotation, processing, and delivery workflows.
• Evaluate and benchmark model performance, establish quality metrics, and drive continuous improvement across diverse languages and acoustic conditions.
• Contribute to research initiatives and stay updated on advances in speech and conversational AI to inform product and technical strategy.
• Establish engineering best practices and scalable ML architecture patterns as the team expands.

Ideal Candidate Background

• 3 or more years of hands-on experience in applied machine learning, with a focus on speech, audio, or conversational AI.
• Strong proficiency in Python and experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Demonstrated experience in managing ML pipelines from proof of concept to production deployment, particularly in speech ML.
• Solid understanding of NLP concepts, with experience using transformer-based architectures and pre-trained models.
• Proven ability to work in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with a strong sense of ownership and action.

Preferred

• Experience in an early-stage or founding team environment.
• Familiarity with multilingual or low-resource language modeling challenges.
• Background in linguistics, phonetics, or a related field that complements engineering skills.

Compensation and Benefits

This role offers a competitive salary and the opportunity to be part of a dynamic team shaping the future of AI in speech and audio technology. Enjoy a collaborative work environment that values innovation and growth.