Senior Voice AI Engineer – Linguistics & Speech

ServiceNow; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 161,000 - 274,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health plans

401(k) match

ESPP

Donation matching

Flexible time off

Family leave

Job summary

ServiceNow is seeking a Senior Voice AI Engineer specializing in Linguistics & Speech to design, develop, and implement Voice AI applications. You will own language support end to end, adding languages and locales, and defining pronunciation rules.

You will analyze multilingual speech problems, diagnose production failures, and drive fixes with engineers and product managers. The role requires hands-on Python development and expertise in linguistics, with opportunities to mentor colleagues.

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Linguistics, Cognitive Science, or a related field
• Specialization in phonetics, acoustics, psycholinguistics, or cognitive science (applied or interdisciplinary rather than theoretical linguistics)
• 4+ years of experience in large-scale experiment design and quantitative research projects in an industry setting or applied research
• Hands-on experience building Voice AI applications
• Development experience with Python or similar languages
• Deep knowledge of the structure of several languages; fluency in a language other than English is a plus
• Ability to explain linguistic findings clearly to engineers, product managers, and customers
• Experience evaluating speech recognition and speech synthesis systems (asset)
• Experience building applications on top of LLMs, including prompt engineering (asset)
• A self-starter, outcome-driven mindset and ability to work with many stakeholders
• The ability to think critically about integrating AI into your work, including hands-on experience with AI tools such as Claude Code, Cursor or Windsurf

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the design, development and implementation of Voice AI applications
• Own language support end to end: add new languages and locales, and maintain language-specific instructions, normalization and pronunciation rules
• Analyze complex speech problems across languages, accents and dialects
• Diagnose language and speech failures in production and drive fixes with the team
• Collaborate with engineers to solve linguistic problems and contribute code
• Partner with product managers to understand use cases and linguistic challenges
• Design linguistic experiments to drive technology choices for Voice AI
• Build tooling to analyze linguistic problems at scale
• Mentor colleagues and promote knowledge-sharing across linguistics and Voice AI engineering

Job description

Job Description

What you get to do in this role: As a Senior Voice AI Engineer - Linguistics & Speech, you will contribute to the design, development and implementation of Voice AI applications, bringing linguistic and speech expertise to the core Voice Platform (Speech Recognition, Conversation Management, Speech Generation). Own language support end to end: add new languages and locales, and maintain language-specific instructions, normalization and pronunciation rules. Analyze complex speech problems across a diverse set of languages, accents and dialects. Work with other linguists to map the problem space of specific languages. Diagnose language and speech failures in production calls, trace them to the responsible component, and drive the fix with the team. Partner with engineers to identify and solve the right linguistic problems, and contribute code to the features that power the user experience. Partner with product managers to work with customers, understand their use cases and linguistic challenges, and build for their success. Design linguistic experiments that drive technology choices (e.g. STT/TTS models and vendors) for Voice AI applications. Build tooling, with the help of AI, to analyze linguistic problems at scale. Mentor colleagues and help promote knowledge-sharing across linguistics and Voice AI engineering disciplines.

Qualifications

To be successful in this role you have:

• A Master's or PhD in Linguistics, Cognitive Science, or a related field
• A specialization in phonetics, acoustics, psycholinguistics, or cognitive science (applied or interdisciplinary rather than theoretical linguistics)
• 4+ years of experience in large-scale experiment design and quantitative research projects in an industry setting or applied research
• Hands-on experience building Voice AI applications
• Development experience with Python or similar languages
• Deep knowledge of the structure of several languages; fluency in a language other than English is a plus.
• Ability to explain linguistic findings clearly to engineers, product managers, and customers.
• Experience evaluating speech recognition and speech synthesis systems (considered an asset)
• Experience building applications on top of LLMs, including prompt engineering (considered an asset)
• A self-starter, outcome-driven mindset and the ability to work with many stakeholders
• The ability to think critically about integrating AI into your work, including hands-on experience with AI tools such as Claude Code, Cursor or Windsurf.
• For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $161,300 - $274,200, plus equity (when applicable), variable/incentive compensation and benefits. Sales positions generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive compensation structure. Please note that the base pay shown is a guideline, and individual total compensation will vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies, and work location. We also offer health plans, including flexible spending accounts, a 401(k) Plan with company match, ESPP, matching donations, a flexible time away plan and family leave programs. Compensation is based on the geographic location in which the role is located and is subject to change based on work location.

Additional Information

Work PersonasWe approach our distributed world of work with flexibility and trust. Work personas (flexible, remote, or required in office) are categories that are assigned to ServiceNow employees depending on the nature of their work and their assigned work location. Learn more here. To determine eligibility for a work persona, ServiceNow may confirm the distance between your primary residence and the closest ServiceNow office using a third-party service.