Software Engineer - Deepgram for Restaurants

Deepgram; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision benefits

Unlimited PTO

401(k) with company match

One-time home office upgrade stipend

Job summary

Deepgram is hiring a Software Engineer for our Restaurants vertical to design, build, and maintain scalable backend systems that power automated order-taking. You’ll work with ML teams and client devices to ensure seamless backend integration and optimize performance in production.

You’ll tackle AI pipeline improvements for noisy audio, scale to new restaurant menus, and push the boundaries of voice AI with a fast-moving startup team.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 4+ years of hands-on backend development experience 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 ability to adapt in a fast-paced startup environment.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work collaboratively with a team.
• Willingness to tackle problems across the entire product.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable, high-performance backend systems for an automated order-taking platform.
• Collaborate with ML teams and client devices for seamless backend integration.
• Monitor and optimize backend performance in production.
• Build and maintain integrations with 3rd party restaurant software like POS, loyalty, payments, and data platforms.
• Implement best practices in system design, code quality, and testing for reliability and security.
• Optimize AI pipelines to handle noisy audio and scale to new menus.
• Push the boundaries of LLMs and voice AI to solve tough challenges.
• Run experiments to validate product impact of new features.

Skills

Backend development

Cloud computing

API design

Problem solving

Communication

Team collaboration

Startup adaptability

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/Engineering

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Company Overview

Deepgram is the leading voice AI platform for developers building speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS) and full speech-to-speech (STS) offerings. 200,000+ developers build with Deepgram’s voice-native foundational models – accessed through APIs or as self-managed software – due to our unmatched accuracy, latency and pricing. Customers include software companies building voice products, co-sell partners working with large enterprises, and enterprises solving internal voice AI use cases. The company ended 2024 cash-flow positive with 400+ enterprise customers, 3.3x annual usage growth across the past 4 years, over 50,000 years of audio processed and over 1 trillion words transcribed. 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 Deepgram for Restaurants- 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

Benefits & Perks

Holistic health

• Medical, dental, vision benefits

• Annual wellness stipend

• Mental health support

• Life, STD, LTD Income Insurance Plans

Work/life blend

• Unlimited PTO

• Generous paid parental leave

• Flexible schedule

• 12 Paid US company holidays

• Quarterly personal productivity stipend

• One-time stipend for home office upgrades

• 401(k) plan with company match

• Tax Savings Programs

Continuous learning

• Learning / Education stipend

• Participation in talks and conferences

• Employee Resource Groups

• AI enablement workshops / sessions

Backed by prominent investors including Y Combinator, Madrona, Tiger Global, Wing VC and NVIDIA, Deepgram has raised over $85 million in total funding. If you're looking to work on cutting-edge technology and make a significant impact in the AI industry, we'd love to hear from you!

Deepgram is an equal opportunity employer. We want all voices and perspectives represented in our workforce. We are a curious bunch focused on collaboration and doing the right thing. We put our customers first, grow together and move quickly. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, pregnancy, parental status, genetic information, political affiliation, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.

We are happy to provide accommodations for applicants who need them.