--- title: 'Data Engineer /ML Ops at Tavus' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/data-engineer-ml-ops-tavus-remote-bn2e4zfsj6b9' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-24' --- # Data Engineer /ML Ops at Tavus - **Company:** Tavus - **Location:** Remote - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-03-30 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-24 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tavus/a29d6e98-3a83-461c-b651-fc0dc387c4c7 ## Job description ## About Us At Tavus, we're building the human layer of AI. Our mission is to make human-AI interaction as natural as face-to-face interaction, enabling the human touch where it has been previously unscalable. We achieve this through pioneering research in multi-modal AI models for human perception and understanding, combined with state-of-the-art human avatar rendering and communication models. Our models power everything from text-to-video AI avatars to real-time conversational video experiences across industries like healthcare, recruiting, sales, education, and more. By enabling AI to see, hear, and communicate with human-like authenticity, we're creating the foundation for the next generation of AI employees, assistants, and companions. We're a Series A company backed by top investors, including Sequoia, Y Combinator, and Scale VC. Join us in driving the future of human-AI interaction. ## The Role Data is the foundation of everything we build. We’re looking for a Senior Data Engineer who goes beyond pipelines and cleaning datasets. You’ll own our entire data strategy, from sourcing and curating to structuring and optimizing, ensuring our models and products are powered by the highest-quality data possible. ## Your Mission - Be a data visionary, anticipating future data needs - Influence AI model training through high-quality data - Own data end-to-end: sourcing, structuring, scaling - Source and curate multimodal data (text, video, images) - Master video data challenges for ML training - Optimize labeling and automation workflows - Unlock value from internal platform data - Balance speed with precision ## What We’re Looking For - Extreme ownership of data strategy - Strategic, ML-first mindset - Experience with LLMs and multimodal datasets - Strong automation skills - Strong Python, SQL, and large-scale data processing experience - Ability to define best practices in new problem spaces ## Benefits Flexible work schedule, unlimited PTO, competitive healthcare and gear stipends, and a collaborative team culture. Tavus is a place to learn, drive impact, and grow alongside a team you love. We are not looking for cultural fits — we are looking for culture creators. Diversity is at the core of how we hire, communicate, and work. ## About Tavus ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Tavus is an AI research lab and platform pioneering "Human Computing," building models and APIs that enable AI to see, hear, understand, and respond with lifelike realism in real-time. - **Entity Type**: Private (Venture-backed) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, CA, United States - **Founded**: 2021 - **Founders**: Hassaan Raza & Quinn Favret ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Artificial Intelligence / Human Computing / Multi-modal AI - **Target customers**: B2B; Product teams and developers (via API and no-code builder), enterprise teams (for onboarding, training, support), and prosumers/individuals (for tutors, companions, assistants). - **Mission**: "To make human-AI interaction as natural as face-to-face interaction, enabling the human touch where it has been previously unscalable." [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/tavus) ## Products & Services - **Conversational Video Interface (CVI)**: An API-first platform that allows developers to embed real-time, face-to-face conversational AI into any product. It enables emotionally intelligent, adaptive interactions with sub-second latency. - **Tavus Platform (No-Code SaaS)**: A no-code builder that lets individuals and enterprises create custom AI humans for use in onboarding, training, customer engagement, or personal use by customizing personality, knowledge, and appearance. - **Replica API**: Tools for creating personal or stock digital twins (replicas) with studio-grade fidelity, full-face rendering, and identity preservation. Supports both individual and large-scale deployment. - **Personas**: A system for defining custom personalities and context to tailor the behavior of AI humans. - **Core AI Models**: - **Sparrow (Conversational Flow Model)**: Delivers low-latency, accurate turn-taking by analyzing lexical, semantic, prosodic, and acoustic cues. - **Raven (Perception Model)**: A multi-modal perception engine that translates facial expressions, tone, gaze, and emotion into conversational signals. - **Phoenix (Rendering Model)**: A gaussian-diffusion based model for high-fidelity, photorealistic facial rendering with contextually accurate emotions and expressions in real time. [tavus.io](https://www.tavus.io/) ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed. - **Key Metric**: **Total Funding**: $40M+ (including a $18M raise in 2024 and a subsequent Series B for $40M in 2025). [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/tavus), [techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Scale Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator (Summer 2021 batch), HubSpot. [tavus.io](https://www.tavus.io/lp/ai-info-page) - **Growth Signals**: - Demonstrated product-market fit with case studies for clients like Final Round AI (1.2M practice minutes logged), ACTO (life sciences training), and CareFlick (senior companionship). - Raising significant venture capital over multiple rounds, indicating strong investor confidence and a long runway for R&D. ## Competitive Advantages - **Real-time realism**: Overcomes the "uncanny valley" with sub-second latency and photorealistic rendering, a key differentiator from asynchronous video-generation and static avatar companies. - **Comprehensive AI Human Stack**: Offers a full operating system (perception, memory, knowledge, action) rather than just a single component like an avatar. - **Flexibility**: Provides multiple integration paths—a modular API, a bring-your-own-LLM option, and a no-code builder—making it accessible to both technical and non-technical users. - **Ethical foundation**: Built with a stated commitment to privacy, consent, and empathy, and aims for transparency in disclosure (e.g., SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance). ## Strategic Focus - **Category Creation**: Actively establishing "Human Computing" as a new industry standard for human-AI interaction, moving beyond simple chatbots and scripted avatars. - **Developer Ecosystem**: Centered on an API-first strategy to become the platform of choice for developers building the next generation of AI assistants, companions, and employees. - **Real-time & Multi-modal**: Continuing to push the boundaries of multi-modal AI (video, audio, text, emotion) to create more intuitive and authentic interactions. - **Enterprise & Prosumer Scale**: Growing the no-code platform to serve both enterprise-scale training/support and personal use cases (tutoring, wellness, companionship). ## Why Work Here - **Cutting-edge Research & Impact**: A chance to work on frontier multi-modal AI models (perception, rendering, conversation) that directly shape how humans interact with machines. - **Culture**: Described as a tight-knit, high-output team with semi-annual full-team retreats and a focus on continuous learning alongside AI leaders. [tavus.io](https://www.tavus.io/careers) - **Compensation & Benefits**: Offers competitive salary, meaningful equity, fully covered medical, dental, and vision for employees and their families, unlimited PTO, and a gear stipend for setting up the workspace. [tavus.io](https://www.tavus.io/careers) - **Work Environment**: "Our team moves mountains to bring the vision to life, and we’ve got their backs." The company appears to embrace a hybrid/office culture in San Francisco (SOMA) with remote options for some roles (e.g., Senior Software Engineer). [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/tavus) - **Team Growth**: Team size reported as around 40 members. Currently hiring for roles like AI Researcher (Perception), Customer Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, and Solution Engineer. [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/tavus), [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tavus) ## Sources 1. [tavus.io](https://www.tavus.io/) 2. [tavus.io/careers](https://www.tavus.io/careers) 3. [tavus.io/lp/ai-info-page](https://www.tavus.io/lp/ai-info-page) 4. [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/tavus) 5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tavus) 6. [techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com) ## Other roles at Tavus - [Senior Software Engineer (CVI)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-cvi-tavus-san-francisco-0xy8c3dnhxe0) — San Francisco, CA - [Vibe Growth Marketer](https://feeny.ai/job/vibe-growth-marketer-tavus-san-francisco-ynha49h58qg6) — San Francisco, CA - [Business Development Representative](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-representative-tavus-san-francisco-vaebfha9r4ex) — San Francisco, CA - [Product Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/product-designer-tavus-san-francisco-813z9bn38tfr) — San Francisco, CA - [Brand & Product Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/brand-product-designer-tavus-san-francisco-8ph3kwhaykea) — San Francisco, CA - [Product Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/product-manager-tavus-san-francisco-w8gfpeca4wqe) — San Francisco, CA - [Enterprise Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/enterprise-account-executive-tavus-san-francisco-eh3s3n051tk8) — San Francisco, CA - [AI Researcher (Multimodal Audio/Video Generation)](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-researcher-multimodal-audio-video-generation-tavus-san-francisco-rebzx76z9c96) — San Francisco, CA - [Marketer (Brand, Product, Storytelling)](https://feeny.ai/job/marketer-brand-product-storytelling-tavus-san-francisco-3avcsehy2hny) — San Francisco, CA - [Conversational Modelling Research Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/conversational-modelling-research-engineer-tavus-remote-rhfhte0fhg6v)