Applied AI Engineer (Customer Facing)

Retell

San Francisco (CA)

On-site

USD 200,000 - 300,000

Full time

14 days+

Get more replies from employers

Send a job-specific resume in minutes.

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance
DoorDash credit
Wellness reimbursement
Commuter reimbursement
Phone bill reimbursement
Internet reimbursement

Job summary

Retell AI is transforming customer experience with Voice AI for enterprises. We are hiring an Applied AI Engineer to design, build, and deploy production AI voice applications for enterprise customers.

You will collaborate with customer engineering teams to integrate Retell APIs and SDKs and help scale AI workflows in production. You will engage daily with Engineering, Product, and Customer Success, solving complex technical problems and influencing product direction while ensuring successful

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in CS/CE/EE or related field.
  • 2+ years of software engineering or customer-facing technical experience.
  • Strong programming in Python or TypeScript.
  • Experience with APIs, SDKs, and distributed systems.
  • Excellent debugging and problem-solving skills.
  • Strong communication skills and ability to work with technical customers.
  • Available to work standard U.S. business hours with overlap with Pacific Time.

Responsibilities

  • Design, build, and deploy production AI voice applications with customers.
  • Partner with customer engineering teams to integrate Retell APIs and SDKs.
  • Develop custom workflows, automations, and conversational AI experiences.
  • Help customers architect scalable AI systems for production.
  • Lead technical onboarding for enterprise customers.
  • Serve as primary technical advisor during implementation.
  • Guide customers on AI best practices, architecture, and deployment strategies.
  • Help define best practices for deploying enterprise Voice AI.

Skills

Python
TypeScript
APIs
Distributed systems
Debugging
Problem-solving
Communication
Customer-facing

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering

Tools

AWS
GCP
Azure
Twilio
SDKs

Job description

About Retell Ai
Retell AI is using first-principles thinking to reimagine the call center with cutting-edge voice AI. Thousands of companies now use Retell's AI voice agents to handle sales, support, and logistics calls that once required large teams of human agents. Backed by Y Combinator, Alt Capital, and other leading investors, we've scaled to $80M in ARR with a team of 50, up from $5M at the start of 2025, and are now valued at over $1.5B.
About Retell Ai
Retell AI is using first-principles thinking to reimagine the call center with cutting-edge voice AI. Thousands of companies now use Retell's AI voice agents to handle sales, support, and logistics calls that once required large teams of human agents. Backed by Y Combinator, Alt Capital, and other leading investors, we've scaled to $80M in ARR with a team of 50, up from $5M at the start of 2025, and are now valued at over $1.5B.

Our vision for 2026 is to build a modern CX platform where entire contact centers are powered by AI. Instead of basic automation that needs constant human tuning, we're creating intelligent AI “workers” that act as frontline agents, QA analysts, and managers, continuously executing, monitoring, and improving every customer interaction.

We're growing fast and looking for ambitious builders who want to tackle hard technical problems, move quickly, and have a real impact on one of the fastest-growing voice AI companies in the world.

Let's build the future together.

Recent Recognition
  • No. 1 Best Places to Work in the Bay Area, San Francisco Business Times 2026
  • Top 50 AI Apps, a16z (2025)
  • #3 Fastest-Growing Software Company, G2 Best Software Awards 2026
  • Best Agentic AI Software, G2 Best Software Awards 2026
  • #4 Fastest-Growing Software Vendor, Brex Benchmark 2025
  • Enterprise Tech 30 Class of 2026, Nasdaq & Wing VC
  • Top-Ranked Startup, Lean AI Leaderboard
  • Backed by Y Combinator
About The Role
Retell AI is transforming customer experience with Voice AI for enterprises, including customers like CVS/Aetna, American Airlines, Lenovo, and Grab. We're building the infrastructure that powers millions of AI-powered phone conversations every month—and we're just getting started.

We're hiring an Applied AI Engineer to work directly with enterprise customers to design, build, and deploy production AI voice applications.

As an Applied AI Engineer, you'll sit at the intersection of AI, software engineering, and customer success. You'll partner closely with customer engineering teams to integrate Retell into their products, solve complex technical challenges, optimize AI workflows, and help customers successfully launch and scale Voice AI in production.

This is an ideal role for someone who enjoys building software, solving ambiguous technical problems, and working directly with customers. You'll collaborate daily with Engineering, Product, and Customer Success while helping shape the future of enterprise AI.

This is a full-time position based in our Redwood City headquarters.

What You'll Do
Build AI Solutions with Customers
  • Design, build, and deploy production AI voice applications.
  • Partner with customer engineering teams to integrate Retell APIs and SDKs.
  • Develop custom workflows, automations, and conversational AI experiences.
  • Help customers architect scalable AI systems for production.

Solve Complex Technical Problems

  • Debug production issues across APIs, webhooks, telephony, SIP, authentication, latency, and infrastructure.
  • Investigate AI behavior and improve prompt quality, reliability, and performance.
  • Work directly in customer codebases when needed.
  • Own technical implementation from proof of concept through production launch.

Drive Customer Success

  • Lead technical onboarding for enterprise customers.
  • Serve as the primary technical advisor during implementation.
  • Guide customers on AI best practices, architecture, and deployment strategies.
  • Help customers expand into new AI use cases across their organizations.

Influence the Product

  • Partner closely with Product and Engineering to improve the platform.
  • Turn customer feedback into product improvements.
  • Identify recurring customer pain points and propose scalable solutions.
  • Help define best practices for deploying enterprise Voice AI.
What We're Looking For
Must Have
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
  • 2+ years of software engineering or customer-facing technical experience building and deploying production applications.
  • Strong programming skills in Python, TypeScript, or similar languages.
  • Experience working with APIs, SDKs, and distributed systems.
  • Excellent debugging and problem-solving skills.
  • Strong communication skills and the ability to work directly with technical customers.
  • Available to work standard U.S. business hours with overlap with our Pacific Time team and enterprise customers.

Nice to Have

  • Experience building AI or LLM-powered applications.
  • Experience with Voice AI, speech technologies, or conversational AI.
  • Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure).
  • Experience with telephony, SIP, Twilio, or real-time communications.
  • Startup experience.
  • Customer-facing engineering, solutions engineering, or consulting experience.
  • Willingness to travel up to 10% for customer workshops, launches, and onsite engagements.

YOU MIGHT THRIVE IF

  • You enjoy building software that solves real customer problems.
  • You like working directly with engineers and technical stakeholders.
  • You enjoy owning projects from architecture through deployment.
  • You're excited about AI and love experimenting with the latest models and technologies.
  • You thrive in fast-moving startup environments with lots of ownership.
  • You enjoy wearing multiple hats across engineering, product, and customer success.
  • You care deeply about delivering exceptional customer outcomes while building scalable solutions.
JOB DETAILS
  • Cash: 200k - 300k
  • Equity: Offers Meaningful Equity
  • Location: Redwood City, CA, US
  • US Visas: Retell AI is open to sponsoring work authorization for qualified candidates, including H-1B, TN, L-1, E-3, F-1 (OPT/CPT), and O-1 visas.
Other Benefits
  • 100% coverage for medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • $70/day DoorDash credit for unlimited breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks
  • $200/month wellness reimbursement (gym, fitness classes, etc.)
  • $300/month commuter reimbursement (gas, Caltrain, etc.)
  • $75/month phone bill reimbursement
  • $50/month internet reimbursement
Compensation Philosophy
  • Best Offer Upfront: Choose from three cash-equity balance options; no negotiation needed.
  • Top 1% Talent: Above-market pay (top 5 percentile) to attract exceptional builders.
  • High Ownership: Small teams, >$1M revenue/employee, and significant equity.
  • Performance-Based: Offers tied to interview performance, not experience or past salaries.
Get your free, confidential resume review.
or drag and drop your file here.
Similar jobs

Similar jobs worth comparing

Applied AI Engineer (Customer Facing)
Applied AI Engineer (Customer Facing)

Retell AI • California (MO)

On-site
USD 200,000 - 300,000
Medical coverage
Dental/Vision coverage
DoorDash credits
+5
Applied AI Engineer (Customer Facing)
Applied AI Engineer (Customer Facing)

Worky • Redwood City (CA)

On-site
USD 200,000 - 300,000
Medical insurance
Dental insurance
Vision insurance
+5
Software Engineer (New Grad)
Software Engineer (New Grad)

Retell • San Francisco (CA)

On-site
USD 83,000 - 104,000
Medical, dental, vision coverage
DoorDash credit
Wellness reimbursement
+3
Senior Software Engineer, Backend
Senior Software Engineer, Backend

Visa Hunt • Redwood City (CA), Northern (KY)

Hybrid
USD 200,000 - 300,000
100% coverage for medical, dental, and
vision insurance
$70/day DoorDash credit
+4
Software Engineer, Founders Initiatives
Software Engineer, Founders Initiatives

Retell • San Francisco (CA)

On-site
USD 160,000 - 270,000
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
DoorDash credits
Wellness reimbursement
+4
Senior Forward Deployed Engineer (Mandarin Fluency Required)
Senior Forward Deployed Engineer (Mandarin Fluency Required)

Retell • San Francisco (CA)

On-site
USD 200,000 - 300,000
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
DoorDash daily credits
Wellness reimbursement
+3
Senior Agent Product Manager
Senior Agent Product Manager

Visa Hunt • Redwood City (CA), Northern (KY)

Hybrid
USD 170,000 - 260,000
100% coverage for medical, dental, and
Senior Software Engineer, Frontend
Senior Software Engineer, Frontend

Visa Hunt • Redwood City (CA), Northern (KY)

Hybrid
USD 200,000 - 300,000
100% coverage for medical, dental, and
DoorDash $70/day credit
Wellness reimbursement $200/month
+3
Founding Sales Engineer
Founding Sales Engineer

Retell • San Francisco (CA)

On-site
USD 170,000 - 260,000
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
DoorDash credits
Wellness reimbursement
+3
Deployment Strategist
Deployment Strategist

Visa Hunt • Redwood City (CA), Northern (KY)

Hybrid
USD 170,000 - 260,000
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
DoorDash credit (day)
Wellness reimbursement
+3