Realtime Voice Engineer

Quippy; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Founding role with equity

Directly with the founder Jonathan

Stock options

YC-backed startup in SF

Job summary

Quippy is a YC-backed startup building a daily practice room for difficult conversations. You will own the realtime voice pipeline from microphone to scene partner and ensure low latency across iOS and backend.

You will tackle challenges in audio quality, latency, and cross-platform consistency to deliver natural, responsive conversations for real users, working from our San Francisco base with remote options.

Qualifications

• Experience shipping realtime audio/voice or streaming systems.
• Ability to optimize for millisecond-level latency across devices and networks.
• Strong debugging across network, mobile, and backend.

Responsibilities

• Own the realtime voice pipeline across iOS app and backend.
• Cut latency and manage interruptions for smooth conversations.
• Measure and improve conversation quality to avoid robotic responses.
• Build tooling to test voice changes before they reach users.

Skills

Realtime audio

WebRTC

Streaming systems

Low latency

Network & device debugging

Tools

WebRTC

iOS development

Audio DSP

Job description

Quippy (YC F26) is a daily practice room for the conversations people dread. You pick a real situation, like disagreeing with your manager or starting a conversation at a party, rehearse it with a realistic scene partner by voice or text, and get honest, line‑by‑line feedback on what landed. The app is live on the App Store.

Voice is the part of Quippy people remember, and the hardest part to build. You will own the realtime path from someone's microphone to a scene partner's reply and back, and make it quick enough that people forget they are practicing.

What You Will Work On

• Own the realtime voice pipeline across the iOS app and the backend
• Cut latency, handle interruptions and turn-taking, and make audio sound right on every device
• Measure conversation quality and fix what makes it feel robotic
• Build the tools that let us test voice changes before they reach users

You might be a fit if

• You have shipped realtime audio, voice, WebRTC, or streaming systems
• You care about milliseconds and can find where they go
• You can debug across the network, the phone, and the server
• You want to build something people talk to every day

Why join now

• A founding role with shares in the company
• You work directly with Jonathan, the founder
• What you build reaches real users within days
• A small team in San Francisco, backed by Y Combinator

Full-time. San Francisco preferred, remote work possible. Competitive salary and stock in the company.