AI/ML Engineer

Wizard Studios Inc; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Wizard, Inc. is seeking a hands-on AI/ML engineer to own the transcription pipeline and AI-assisted editing features for on-desktop use. You will integrate local and API-based models to deliver real-time transcription and editing capabilities on user workstations.

This role focuses on on-device inference, multimodal integration, and production-quality ASR systems to power high-quality video workflows in a fast-paced, creative environment.

Qualifications

• Must have experience with video or audio ML models.
• Experience with on-device inference optimization.
• Experience with Whisper or similar ASR systems.
• Experience building real-time inference pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Own transcription pipeline and AI-assisted editing features.
• Responsible for model serving and local inference integration.

Skills

Video ML models

On-device inference

ASR/Whisper

Real-time pipelines

Job description

Wizard is the AI-native platform for creative work, starting with professional video: a native C++ editor and headless media runtime that humans, agents, and developers all operate.

Own transcription, AI-assisted editing features and local model serving so Wizard's AI works in real time on the desktop.

Why this role matters

Our GTM plan hinges on a five-minute demo: raw footage in, Oz assembles a cut, a finished trailer comes out — and the trailer's quality is the test of whether any of this actually works. You're building the transcription and inference layer underneath that demo: the thing that has to be fast, accurate, and running locally on somebody's desktop, not a cloud API with a spinner.

About the role

You'll own the transcription pipeline, AI-assisted editing features, and model integration (local and API) that make Wizard's AI features actually work in real time on desktop.

This is one of two AI/ML seats: the first covers multimodal, CLIP-based visual search; this one is focused on transcription/ASR and on-device inference.

What you'll do

• Transcription (speech-to-text, waveform text display)

• AI-assisted editing features

• Model serving (local inference)

What you bring

Must-have experience

• Video or audio ML models (not just LLMs)

• On-device inference optimization

• Whisper or similar ASR systems

• Real-time inference pipelines

Show us what you can do

Nice to have

• Diffusion models, video understanding

• Temporal consistency in video ML

• Experience with model quantization / distillation

About Wizard

Every so often, a new technology redefines how stories get told: the printing press, the telephone, radio, the film camera, the cutting room, television, the digital camera, non-linear editing. We think we're at the start of the next one, and we intend to build the company that defines it.

Wizard is the AI-native platform for creative work, starting with the hardest creative workflow: professional video. In roughly six months, our team built a native C++ editor and a headless media runtime that humans, agents, and developers all operate. Oz, our agent, ingests footage at roughly 300× real time and edits at 30–60× real time, and every change it makes stays inspectable, editable, and reversible.

Our philosophy is creative as code: every decision editable, controllable, composable, never generative slop you regenerate and hope for the best. Controllability over convenience. Artist integrity over automation. Taste over throughput.

Our sister company is Story, a production company making video for frontier AI labs and deep-tech companies. We work closely with them: Story is our first customer and in-house design partner, and its editors cut real client work on Wizard every day.

Our team comes from Industrial Light & Magic, Netflix, Apple, Epic Games, Lucasfilm, Blizzard, and 2K. We work in person in San Francisco.

Compensation

The base salary range for this role is $175,000 – $230,000. Your final offer will depend on your experience, skills and level.