Lead AI/ML Engineer

Asapp 2; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Medical, vision, and dental insurance

401k matching

Wellness stipend

Phone reimbursement

Mental well‑being benefits

Learning stipend

Parental leave

Paid time off

Unlimited sick leave

Job summary

ASAPP is building AI‑powered customer experiences with hybrid and remote work. You will lead end‑to‑end voice AI solutions, combining LLMs with speech tech to create low‑latency, enterprise‑grade systems. You’ll guide a technical team through ambiguity toward production excellence.

This is a hybrid role with weekly in‑person responsibilities in offices in New York City and Mountain View, CA, and collaboration across global hubs.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in ML/AI systems with LLMs, speech, or conversational AI.
• Hands‑on with speech‑to‑text and text‑to‑speech systems.
• Production‑level voice models integrated into apps.
• Proficient in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch/TensorFlow).
• Led complex cross‑functional AI initiatives and large systems.

Responsibilities

• Build real‑time conversational AI systems with TTS/STT and streaming.
• Design low‑latency inference workflows for multimodal apps.
• Integrate foundation models (OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Anthropic) for prototyping.
• Adapt and optimize LLMs for enterprise domains.
• Maintain infra for experimentation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Improve latency, cost, and reliability of inference workflows.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring within the team.
• Collaborate with product and stakeholders to scale ML solutions.
• Contribute to internal standards for eval, deployment, and testing.

Skills

LLMs

Speech systems

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

AWS

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Real-time streaming

Team leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Prompt engineering

G/GRPC streaming

Education

MS or PhD in Computer Science / ML / Speech Processing

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

AWS

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

gRPC

Job description

At ASAPP, our mission is simple: deliver the best AI‑powered customer experience—faster than anyone else. To achieve that, we’re guided by principles that shape how we think, build, and execute. We value customer obsession, purposeful speed, ownership, and a relentless focus on outcomes. We work in tight, skilled teams, prioritize clarity over complexity, and continuously evolve through curiosity, data, and craftsmanship. We’re seeking technologists and problem solvers who thrive in fast‑paced environments, love collaborating with great talent, and approach every day like it’s Day 1.

We’re a globally diverse team with hubs in New York City, Mountain View, Latin America, and India—embracing both hybrid and remote work to bring the best minds together, wherever they are. If you’re driven by continuous learning, rapid pivots, and the challenges of building in a high‑growth startup, we’d love to talk. This is more than a job—it’s a journey.

You will lead the design and delivery of end‑to‑end voice AI solutions, combining large language models with speech technologies such as speech‑to‑text, text‑to‑speech, and real‑time streaming audio pipelines. This role requires a hands‑on technical leader who can architect low‑latency, highly reliable conversational voice systems and guide a team through ambiguity toward production excellence.

We are looking for someone who understands the unique constraints of voice experiences, latency, turn‑taking, interruption handling, streaming inference, and audio quality, and can translate these into scalable, enterprise‑grade systems.

This is a hybrid role with weekly in‑person responsibilities. We have offices in New York City and Mountain View, CA.

Responsibilities

• Build real‑time conversational AI systems, including voice interfaces powered by speech‑to‑text, text‑to‑speech, and streaming inference pipelines
• Design and optimize low‑latency inference workflows for multimodal applications involving text, speech, and real‑time interactions
• Integrate and apply foundation models from major providers (OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Anthropic, etc.) for prototyping and production use cases
• Adapt, evaluate, and optimize LLMs for domain‑specific enterprise applications
• Build and maintain infrastructure for experimentation, deployment, and monitoring of AI models in production
• Improve model performance and inference workflows with attention to latency, cost, and reliability
• Provide technical leadership within the team, mentoring engineers and promoting best practices in ML engineering
• Partner with product and cross‑functional stakeholders to translate requirements into scalable ML solutions
• Contribute to the evolution of internal standards for experimentation, evaluation, and deployment

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in Machine Learning or AI systems, with hands‑on experience in LLMs, speech, or conversational AI systems
• Experience building and integrating speech‑to‑text and text‑to‑speech systems
• Strong experience integrating voice models into production applications
• Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow
• Proven experience leading complex, cross‑functional AI initiatives
• Deep understanding of latency‑sensitive system design and distributed architectures
• Understanding of RAG pipelines, prompt engineering, and vector search
• Experience deploying and scaling AI systems using AWS (required), Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD practices
• Strong communication skills with the ability to align engineering, product, and executive stakeholders
• Comfortable operating in fast‑paced environments and driving clarity in ambiguous problem spaces
• Experience with speech model fine‑tuning and acoustic/language model optimization
• Experience with production applications of S2S models
• Hands‑on experience with real‑time or streaming audio systems (WebRTC, gRPC streaming, or similar architectures)
• Experience optimizing TTS prosody, pronunciation control, and voice customization
• Background in MLOps, experimentation platforms, or evaluation frameworks for speech and conversational systems
• Contributions to open‑source AI or speech tooling
• Graduate degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Speech Processing, or related field

Benefits

• Competitive compensation with stock options
• Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental insurance
• 401k matching
• Fitness and wellness stipend
• Mobile phone reimbursement
• Mental well‑being benefits
• Professional learning and development stipend
• Parental leave, including adoptive and foster parents
• 3 weeks paid time off (increases with tenure) and unlimited sick leave

ASAPP is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal‑opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, or veteran status. If you have a disability and need assistance with our employment application process, please email us at [e-mail] to obtain assistance.