--- title: 'Data Engineer, Machine Learning at Sesame' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/data-engineer-machine-learning-sesame-san-francisco-gd27mz4nwtn1' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-12' --- # Data Engineer, Machine Learning at Sesame - **Company:** Sesame - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Compensation:** $170k–$260k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-06-23 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sesame/08ade360-a4bc-4584-9c40-04dc380276a5/application **Skills:** SQL, Python, ETL/ELT pipelines, Airflow, Dagster, Prefect, ML data workflows, Dataset versioning, Data labeling pipelines, Model evaluation data, Unstructured data, Semi-structured data, Audio, Text, JSON logs, Vector databases, Embedding storage, Feature stores, Ray, Spark > Build and maintain data pipelines to feed Sesame's AI models, collaborating with ML engineers to ensure data quality, versioning, and reproducibility for training and evaluation. ## Job description ## About Sesame Sesame believes in a future where computers are lifelike - with the ability to see, hear, and collaborate with us in ways that feel natural and human. With this vision, we're designing a new kind of computer, focused on making voice agents part of our daily lives. Our team brings together founders from Oculus and Ubiquity6, alongside proven leaders from Meta, Google, and Apple, with deep expertise spanning hardware and software. Join us in shaping a future where computers truly come alive. ## About the Role We're looking for a Data Engineer to build and maintain the data pipelines that feed Sesame's AI models. You'll collaborate directly with machine learning engineers and researchers — your job is to make sure they have the right data, in the right shape, at the right time to train, evaluate, and ship models. Sesame's data is rich and complex: conversations, voice, sensor signals, and product telemetry. You'll design the systems that take raw, unstructured, multimodal data and turn it into clean, versioned, well-documented datasets that ML teams can trust and build on confidently. This is a deeply technical, infrastructure-focused role — closer to ML engineering than traditional data analytics. You'll be deeply embedded with ML teams, understanding their workflows and building infrastructure that accelerates the full model development lifecycle — from data collection and labeling through training and evaluation. Responsibilities: - Design and build production data pipelines that prepare conversational, voice, and multimodal data for model training and evaluation. - Partner directly with ML engineers to understand data requirements for new models and experiments, and deliver datasets that meet those needs. - Build and maintain infrastructure for dataset versioning, lineage tracking, and reproducibility — so any training run can be traced back to its exact data. - Develop data quality frameworks that catch issues before they become model quality issues: schema validation, drift detection, and coverage monitoring. - Optimise large-scale data processing for cost and performance across Sesame's cloud infrastructure. - Build tooling that makes it easy for ML engineers and researchers to discover, explore, and request data independently. - Define and enforce data governance and privacy standards, particularly around sensitive conversational and voice data. - Contribute to architecture decisions around Sesame's broader data platform as the team and data volume grow. Required Qualifications: - 5+ years in data engineering, with meaningful experience supporting ML or AI teams specifically. - Strong SQL and Python skills — you'll use both daily. - Experience building and operating ETL/ELT pipelines at scale using modern data platforms and tooling. - Experience with workflow orchestration systems such as Airflow, Dagster, or Prefect. - Hands-on experience with ML data workflows: training data pipelines, dataset versioning, data labeling pipelines, or model evaluation data. - A solid understanding of how ML teams work — you don't need to train models; what matters is understanding what makes a good training dataset and why data quality directly affects model performance. - Comfort working with unstructured and semi-structured data — audio, text, JSON logs — not just clean relational tables. - Strong communication skills. You'll be embedded with ML engineers and need to bridge data systems and model requirements effectively. Preferred Qualifications: - Vector databases, embedding storage, or feature stores. - Data from hardware or embedded systems: telemetry, sensors, real-time streams. - Distributed compute frameworks for large-scale data processing such as Ray or Spark. - Kubernetes and managed Kubernetes environments such as GKE or EKS. - Data privacy frameworks, especially around voice or conversational data. - Building internal tooling or self-serve data platforms. Sesame is committed to a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered. We welcome all qualified applicants, embracing diversity in race, gender, identity, orientation, ability, and more. We provide reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities. Contact careers@sesame.com for assistance. Full-time Employee Benefits: - 401 (k) max employer match: 3.5% of compensation - 100% employer-paid health, vision, and dental benefits for you and your dependents - Unlimited PTO and sick time - Flexible spending account with employer matching up to $1,650/year (medical FSA) - Guardian Employee Assistance Program (EAP) - Opportunity to share in the company's success with competitive stock options Benefits do not apply to contingent/contract workers. ## About Sesame ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Sesame is building lifelike, conversational AI agents integrated into lightweight eyewear, aiming to bring ambient intelligence to daily life. - **Entity Type**: Private (early-stage, backed by prominent venture firms) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA - **Founded**: 2023 - **Founders**: Brendan Iribe, Ankit Kumar, Ryan Brown, Angela Gayles, Nate Mitchell ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Artificial intelligence / Voice assistants / Consumer electronics - **Target customers**: Consumer (B2C) – individuals seeking hands-free, intelligent personal agents integrated into everyday eyewear - **Mission or purpose statement**: “Bringing the computer to life” – creating a personal companion that understands you, with natural conversation and lightweight, all-day wearable hardware. ## Products & Services - **Sesame Personal Agents**: Software-based conversational AI agents capable of natural dialogue, personality modeling, and multimodal interaction (voice, gesture). Currently in development; initial hardware (eyewear) targeted for 2027. - **Sesame Eyewear**: Lightweight, all-day comfortable glasses with high-quality audio and hands-free agent access. Coming 2027. - **Research Platform**: In-house deep learning research covering speech generation, personality modeling, multimodality, and scaled training infrastructure. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available. Unconfirmed reports suggest a potential fundraising round of ~$200 M (source: Techmeme via LinkedIn snippet). The company has not officially disclosed its valuation. - **Key Metric**: Total employees ~70 (as of mid-2026), with +5.8 % monthly headcount growth. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Backed by a16z, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, plus a collection of founders and investors. - **Growth Signals**: 55 total employees on BuiltIn (likely older data); 63 active job postings (+14.5 % monthly trend); monthly LinkedIn follower growth of +3.8 % (20,969 followers). Talent sources include Meta, Apple, Google, DeepMind, and Microsoft. ## Competitive Advantages - **Interdisciplinary approach**: Tightly integrated hardware, software, and ML teams (hardware engineers, ML researchers, product designers) working on a unified product vision. - **Founding team pedigree**: Led by Oculus VR veterans (Brendan Iribe, Nate Mitchell) and experienced AI/ML innovators, giving deep expertise in both consumer hardware and conversational AI. - **Research depth**: Active push in speech generation, personality modeling, and multimodality, with scaled GPU infrastructure for training. ## Strategic Focus - **Near-term**: Ship the first generation of personal agent software and finalize the eyewear device for a 2027 launch. Continue advancing foundational ML research. - **Long-term**: Build a new category of ambient, always-available AI companions that replace traditional screen-based interaction. - **Growth areas**: Expanding engineering team rapidly (63 open roles), especially in ML, embedded systems, iOS/Android, supply chain, and hardware. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Small, focused, interdisciplinary team with a clear vision. Emphasis on tight collaboration between research, product, and hardware. Described as “artists, makers, and engineers.” - **Work environment**: In-office for most roles (San Francisco, Bellevue, New York). Roles are listed as “In-Office” (not remote/hybrid). Offices in SF, Bellevue, NY. - **Perks & engineering culture**: Not explicitly detailed, but the company invests heavily in infrastructure (GPU clusters) and research. Strong engineering focus with roles spanning embedded ML, OS architecture, and developer infrastructure. - **Notable**: Opportunities to work on cutting-edge voice AI and physical product design from the ground up. ## Sources 1. [sesame.com](https://www.sesame.com/) – Company overview and product vision 2. [sesame.com/team](https://www.sesame.com/team) – Leadership, investors, team description 3. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/sesame-sesamecom) – Founded year, HQ, employee count, office policy 4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/sesameai) – Employee count, growth, talent sources, funding rumor 5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sesame) – Open positions and location details ## Other roles at Sesame - [Product Engineering Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/product-engineering-lead-sesame-san-francisco-frrrpwp06s6z) — San Francisco, CA - [Software Engineer - Backend](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-backend-sesame-san-francisco-m8vjteeqpd43) — San Francisco, CA - [Executive Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-sesame-new-york-e0mdmkv43s9f) — New York, NY - [iOS/Android Automation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/ios-android-automation-engineer-sesame-san-francisco-yg3qrrfeze2g) — San Francisco, CA - [Creative Director](https://feeny.ai/job/creative-director-sesame-san-francisco-ergm4698gggm) — San Francisco, CA - [Research Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-sesame-san-francisco-dn2g1qez13fh) — San Francisco, CA - [Hardware Test Automation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-test-automation-engineer-sesame-san-francisco-fvyd7w3bj32c) — San Francisco, CA - [Head of Sales](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-sales-sesame-san-francisco-8d0r15ne63nw) — San Francisco, CA - [NPI Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/npi-engineer-sesame-taipei-ezvdh72dn9yg) — Taipei, Taiwan - [Manufacturing Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-mechanical-engineer-sesame-san-francisco-w823rcvz6t4s) — San Francisco, CA