Software Engineer - Applied AI (Senior or Staff Level)

Deepgram, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Deepgram, Inc. is expanding its Enterprise AI Team to tackle the toughest problems in the voice AI space. You will design and maintain scalable backend systems that power real-time speech processing, while integrating ML models and client devices for restaurant enterprises.

You will work at scale with a fast-paced AI-first culture, embracing experimentation and rapid iteration. The role focuses on building robust backend services, improving AI pipelines, and collaborating with cross-functional

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 4+ years of hands-on experience in backend infrastructure in production environments.
• Proven track record of building scalable, high-performance backend systems.
• Experience with cloud-based infrastructure and deployment technologies, such as AWS and API design.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to adapt to a rapidly evolving startup environment.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work collaboratively with a team.
• Willingness to problem solve across our entire product.
• Ability to proactively recognize problems and identify solutions.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable, high-performance backend systems for our automated order-taking platform.
• Collaborate closely with our team to ensure seamless integration of our backend with ML models and client devices.
• Monitor and optimize the performance of backend systems in production environments.
• Build and maintain integrations with 3rd party restaurant software systems like POS, loyalty, payment gateways, and customer data platforms.
• Implement best practices in system design, code quality, and testing to ensure reliable, secure, and maintainable systems.
• Optimize AI pipeline to improve performance in challenging audio environments and scale to new menus.
• Push the boundaries of LLMs and voice AI to solve challenging industry problems.
• Run experiments to validate the product impact of new functionality.

Skills

Backend development

Cloud infrastructure

API design

Python

Kotlin

Java

Docker

Kubernetes

AI integration

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

AWS

Job description

Company Overview

Deepgram is the leading platform underpinning the emerging trillion-dollar Voice AI economy, providing real-time APIs for speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS), and building production‑grade voice agents at scale. More than 200,000 developers and 1,300+ organizations build voice offerings that are ‘Powered by Deepgram’, including Twilio, Cloudflare, Sierra, Decagon, Vapi, Daily, Cresta, Granola, and Jack in the Box. Deepgram’s voice‑native foundation models are accessed through cloud APIs or as self-hosted and on‑premises software, with unmatched accuracy, low latency, and cost efficiency. Backed by a recent Series C led by leading global investors and strategic partners, Deepgram has processed over 50,000 years of audio and transcribed more than 1 trillion words. There is no organization in the world that understands voice better than Deepgram.

Company Operating Rhythm

At Deepgram, we expect an AI‑first mindset—AI use and comfort aren’t optional, they’re core to how we operate, innovate, and measure performance.

Every team member who works at Deepgram is expected to actively use and experiment with advanced AI tools, and even build your own into your everyday work. We measure how effectively AI is applied to deliver results, and consistent, creative use of the latest AI capabilities is key to success here. Candidates should be comfortable adopting new models and modes quickly, integrating AI into their workflows, and continuously pushing the boundaries of what these technologies can do.

Additionally, we move at the pace of AI. Change is rapid, and you can expect your day‑to‑day work to evolve just as quickly. This may not be the right role if you’re not excited to experiment, adapt, think on your feet, and learn constantly, or if you’re seeking something highly prescriptive with a traditional 9‑to‑5.

The Opportunity:

We are seeking a Software Engineer to join our Enterprise AI Team—a new, vertically focused business unit dedicated to solving the toughest problems in the space, working alongside Deepgram’s core research teams.

We’ll be working directly with leading restaurant enterprises and leading restaurant technology partners to uncover and solve the highest‑impact problems in the space. Early focus areas include:

• Ultra‑robust ASR in noisy, multi‑mic environments
• High‑accuracy, menu‑aware drive‑thru and phone ordering agents
• Real‑time analytics and operational intelligence
• Deeper, more reliable in‑restaurant hardware integration

We are already partnering with several leading brands and will continue expanding these efforts.

What You’ll Do

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable, high‑performance backend systems for our automated order‑taking platform
• Collaborate closely with our team to ensure the seamless integration of our backend with our ML models and client devices
• Monitor and optimize the performance of our backend systems in production environments
• Build and maintain integrations with 3rd party restaurant software systems like POS, loyalty, payment gateways, and customer data platforms
• Implement best practices in system design, code quality, and testing to ensure a reliable, secure, and maintainable system
• Optimize AI pipeline to improve performance in challenging audio environments, robustly handle ambiguous customer requests, and rapidly scale to new menus
• Push the very boundaries of LLMs and voice AI technology to solve one of the technology industry’s historically elusive challenges
• Run experiments to validate the product impact of new functionality

It’s Important To Us That You Have

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
• 4+ years of hands‑on experience in developing, implementing, and maintaining backend infrastructure in production environments
• Proven track record of building and deploying scalable, high‑performance backend systems
• Experience with cloud‑based infrastructure and deployment technologies, such as AWS and API design
• Excellent problem‑solving skills and the ability to adapt to a rapidly evolving startup environment
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively with a team
• Willingness to problem solve across our entire product
• Ability to proactively recognize problems and identify solutions to those problems
• Results oriented and care about the impact of your work

It Would Be Great if You Had

• Experience working with audio
• Experience taking a backend system from zero to one
• Experience building and maintaining a system that integrates with many 3rd party APIs, particularly Point of Sale systems
• Experience with Python, Kotlin, or Java
• Experience with containerization tools, such as Docker and Kubernetes
• Experience working in or alongside AI / ML