ML Engineer

Visa Hunt; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health insurance

401(k) with match

Relocation assistance

Parental leave

Job summary

Wispr is building the first capable voice interface to reach billions of users. We are hiring an ML Engineer to prototype and ship features for our voice interface and to build scalable infrastructure for sub-500ms LLM inference across a global user base.

You will help scale personalization of speech models using fine-tuning and RL, collaborating with a small, fast-moving team in San Francisco and beyond.

Qualifications

• Founding or startup experience is required or strongly preferred.
• Experience optimizing ML inference or engineering systems for research teams.
• Fluency in Python and LLM development.

Responsibilities

• Prototype and design new features of the voice interface.
• Build infrastructure to handle sub-500ms LLM inference for millions of requests.
• Scale personalization of speech models using fine-tuning and RL.

Skills

Startup experience

ML inference optimization

Python

LLM development

Attention to detail

Clarity of thought

Code velocity

Job description

About Wispr

We're building the first voice interface a billion people use every day.

Our first product, Flow, lets you talk instead of type anywhere on your computer or phone, and turns messy speech into polished text that is ready to send. It's scaled from $2M to $50M in ARR in under 12 months with millions of users and thousands of enterprise customers. How we think

The team is still small enough that every person shapes what gets built.

About the Role

As a ML engineer at Wispr, you’ll play a crucial role in building the first capable, habit forming voice interface that scales to a billion users. Members of our technical staff are responsible for prototyping and designing new features of our voice interface, building infrastructure to handle <500ms LLM inference for millions of requests from everywhere around the world, and scaling the personalization of our speech models and LLMs with fine-tuning and RL.

What are we looking for?

• Previous founding or startup experience
• Experience optimizing ML inference or engineering systems for research teams
• Fluency in Python and LLM development
• Attention to detail and eagerness to learn
• Aptitude and clarity of thought
• Creativity, excellence in engineering, and code velocity

Logistics

Location. About 60% of the team is in San Francisco and the rest are remote, mostly US-based.

• If you're in SF: you'll be in the office most days. We think the best work happens in person. Most of the team is here five days a week, and a few do three or four days depending on family or long commutes.
• If you're remote: we're open to remote for some roles. We fly remote teammates to SF for three to four days a month.

Visa sponsorship. We sponsor visas: H1B, O1, EB1, L1, STEM + OPT, and more. We can't successfully sponsor for every role and every candidate, but if we make you an offer we'll make every reasonable effort, and we retain an immigration law firm to help.

What we offer

We're a small, focused team that cares deeply about the quality of our work and the people we do it with. Here's what you can expect:

• Equity on employee-friendly terms, including extended exercise windows and a combination of ISOs and RSUs. Ask us for more details!
• Health, dental and vision. We cover 100% of the premium on the Anthem Blue Cross Gold PPO, and 75% of premiums for dependents. (US only)
• 401(k) with up to a 4% match. (US only)
• Flexible time off and company holidays.
• All meals in the office, plus commuter benefits and relocation reimbursement if you’re moving to San Francisco.
• A high-spec laptop, monitor, and a whisper-friendly microphone.
• Regular team events and off-sites.
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave (12 weeks for non-birthing parent). The early days with a new baby matter more than anything we're doing here, and we want you to be present for them.

We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification. Not all strong candidates will meet every single qualification as listed. Research shows that people who identify as being from underrepresented groups are more prone to experiencing imposter syndrome and doubting the strength of their candidacy, so we urge you not to exclude yourself prematurely and to submit an application if you're interested in this work. We’re designing how humans interact with AI, which makes representation even more important, and we strive to include a range of diverse perspectives on our team.

We are committed to ensuring a fair and accessible interview process. If you need any accommodations or adjustments, please let us know.