ML Engineer — ASR

Kiefer; Ohio; Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

KIEFER is seeking an ML Engineer to improve automatic speech recognition for Sophea Meet. You will work with real meeting audio and own the improvement loop from data and model experiments through evaluation and production performance. The initial language focus is English.

Additional languages, starting with Greek, will be prioritized with Product based on usage and product needs. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to deploy robust ASR systems across our products.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of ML/research engineering with measurable results.
• Strong hands-on ASR or speech ML experience.
• Experience training/fine-tuning deep learning models using real-world audio data.
• Strong evaluation skills, including WER/CER, benchmark design, error analysis, and regression testing.
• Strong Python, hands-on experience with PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, or a similar framework, and solid software engineering skills.
• Experience deploying, monitoring, and maintaining production ML systems.

Responsibilities

• Train, fine-tune, adapt, and evaluate speech recognition models based on product needs.
• Build representative benchmarks and regression tests for real meeting audio.
• Prepare speech datasets and investigate difficult cases, including noise, overlapping speakers, long sessions, and specialized terminology.
• Use error analysis to decide which model, data, or pipeline changes will improve transcription quality.
• Improve inference across accuracy, latency, throughput, reliability, and cost.
• Deploy and monitor model versions with Engineering, while working with Product to set quality goals and prioritize improvements.

Skills

ML engineering

ASR

Python

PyTorch

JAX

TensorFlow

Production ML

Evaluation (WER/CER)

Tools

PyTorch

JAX

TensorFlow

Job description

About the company:

KIEFER is building Greece's integrated AI ecosystem. From renewable energy infrastructure and AI systems to robotics and enterprise applications, we connect the technologies that power Europe's intelligent future. Founded in 2014, KIEFER has delivered 600MW+ of energy projects and is now developing sovereign AI infrastructure, enterprise AI products and physical AI systems for Greece and Southeast Europe.

About the role

We are looking for an ML Engineer to improve automatic speech recognition (ASR) for Sophea Meet. You will work with real meeting audio and own the improvement loop from data and model experiments through evaluation and production performance.

The initial language focus is English. Additional languages, starting with Greek, will be prioritized with Product based on usage and product needs.

What you will do

• Train, fine-tune, adapt, and evaluate speech recognition models based on measured product needs.

• Build representative benchmarks and regression tests for real meeting audio.

• Prepare speech datasets and investigate difficult cases, including noise, overlapping speakers, long sessions, and specialized terminology.

• Use error analysis to decide which model, data, or pipeline changes will improve transcription quality.

• Improve inference across accuracy, latency, throughput, reliability, and cost.

• Deploy and monitor model versions with Engineering, while working with Product to set quality goals and prioritize improvements.

What you will need

• 3+ years of relevant ML or research engineering experience, with clear technical ownership and measurable results.

• Strong hands-on ASR or speech ML experience, including a speech recognition system you shipped or materially improved.

• Experience training, fine-tuning, or adapting deep learning models using real-world audio data.

• Strong evaluation skills, including WER/CER, benchmark design, error analysis, and regression testing.

• Strong Python, hands-on experience with PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, or a similar framework, and solid software engineering skills.

• Experience deploying, monitoring, and maintaining production ML systems.

Nice to have

• Multilingual ASR, accent robustness, domain adaptation, or diarization.

• Streaming speech recognition and low-latency inference.

• MLOps, evaluation, or data pipelines for speech systems.

• Experience with meeting transcription, voice agents, or enterprise speech products.

What is there for you

• Compensation: Competitive package aligned with talent benchmarks.

• Impact: Hands-on work shaping AI capabilities for Kiefer Tech's products and real-world applications.

• AI-native environment: Real challenges across model development, evaluation, and production AI systems.

• Culture: Engineering-first, high autonomy, low bureaucracy, and space to shape meaningful AI products.