---
title: 'Software Engineer - Applied AI (Senior or Staff Level) at Deepgram'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-applied-ai-senior-or-staff-level-deepgram-san-francisco-wdr9h821cr8z'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-06'
---

# Software Engineer - Applied AI (Senior or Staff Level) at Deepgram

- **Company:** Deepgram
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $197k–$307k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-04
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/deepgram/68372d7d-b7a9-439e-a0a7-76690576aba4/application

**Skills:** Backend infrastructure development, Cloud-based infrastructure, AWS, API design, System design, Code quality, Testing, Audio processing, Zero-to-one system building, Point of Sale (POS) integration, Python, Kotlin, Java, Docker, Kubernetes, AI/ML

> Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend systems for an automated order-taking platform within Deepgram's vertical business unit. The role involves collaborating with ML teams to integrate backend services, optimize AI pipelines for audio environments, and build integrations with third-party restaurant software.

## 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

Notice: We're aware of individuals impersonating Deepgram recruiters. All legitimate Deepgram recruiting communication comes from an @deepgram.com http://deepgram.com email address. If you've received a message claiming to be Deepgram, please forward it to careers@deepgram.com.

## About Deepgram

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Deepgram is a foundational AI company building real-time voice AI infrastructure for developers and enterprises to power speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and voice agent applications.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, Unicorn status)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA (remote-first, distributed across 20+ states and 5+ countries)
- **Founded**: 2015
- **Founders**: Scott Stephenson (CEO), Adam Sypniewski, Noah Shutty

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Voice AI / Artificial Intelligence / Speech Recognition
- **Target customers**: Developers, product teams, enterprises, and platforms embedding voice AI (B2B, B2D)
- **Mission statement**: To transform the way humans interact with machines by unlocking the productivity of the world through voice technology

## Products & Services
- **Speech-to-Text (STT)**: Real-time and batch transcription with models like Nova-3 (world’s most accurate real-time STT) and Flux Multilingual (first conversational STT in 10 languages). Available via cloud or self-hosted. [deepgram.com](https://deepgram.com/)
- **Text-to-Speech (TTS)**: Aura-2, professional-grade enterprise TTS for natural voice output. [deepgram.com](https://deepgram.com/)
- **Voice Agent API**: A unified API that combines STT, TTS, and LLM orchestration into a single endpoint, reducing complexity, latency, and cost for building conversational AI agents. [deepgram.com](https://deepgram.com/)
- **Custom Models**: Ability to train custom speech models for unique use cases and domain-specific vocabulary. [deepgram.com](https://deepgram.com/)
- **Saga (Voice OS)**: An operating system for voice applications, announced as a platform-level offering. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/deepgram)
- **Deepgram for Restaurants**: Vertical solution for drive-thru and restaurant voice ordering (95%+ containment), powered by the acquisition of OfOne. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/deepgram)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $1.3 billion unicorn status (as of Series C in 2024) [deepgram.com](https://deepgram.com/about)
- **Key Metric**: $130 million in Series C funding (total raised: ~$202M+ including $72M Series B) [deepgram.com](https://deepgram.com/about)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Y Combinator, NVIDIA (proud partner), with Series C led by prominent venture firms [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/deepgram)
- **Growth Signals**: Processed 50,000+ years of audio and 1 trillion+ words; trusted by 200,000+ developers and 1,300+ organizations; acquired OfOne for restaurant voice AI; launched Flux Multilingual, Nova-3, Aura-2, and Saga in rapid succession [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/deepgram)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Foundational AI moat**: Deepgram is a research-driven company that builds its own end-to-end deep learning models (not wrappers), giving them control over accuracy, latency, and cost.
- **Unified API advantage**: A single Voice Agent API that replaces the need to stitch together separate STT, TTS, and LLM components—reducing complexity and latency.
- **Scale and experience**: The most experienced voice AI platform in the world, having processed the largest volume of voice data (50,000+ years of audio).
- **Enterprise-grade reliability**: Offers on-premise/self-hosted deployment options for compliance-heavy industries (healthcare, finance, legal).
- **NVIDIA partnership**: Access to scalable GPU infrastructure for training and inference, differentiating them from competitors.

## Strategic Focus
- **Voice AI Economy leadership**: Positioning Deepgram as the infrastructure layer for the emerging "trillion-dollar Voice AI economy."
- **Multilingual expansion**: Launching Flux Multilingual to capture global markets beyond English.
- **Vertical industry penetration**: Moving beyond horizontal API into vertical solutions (restaurants via OfOne acquisition, medical transcription).
- **Agentic AI**: Doubling down on Voice Agent API and autonomous voice agents as the next growth vector.
- **Platform expansion**: Building Saga (Voice OS) to become the operating system for all voice applications.

## Why Work Here
- **Remote-first culture**: Deepgram is a remote-first company with employees across 20+ states in the US and 5+ countries. They offer freedom and flexibility to work from anywhere. [deepgram.com](https://deepgram.com/careers)
- **Strong benefits package**: Medical, dental, vision insurance; mental health support; unlimited PTO; 12 paid US holidays; parental leave; 401(k) with company match; wellness stipend; learning/education stipend; quarterly productivity stipend; one-time office upgrade stipend. [deepgram.com](https://deepgram.com/careers)
- **Inclusive environment**: Active Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and a stated commitment to "every voice, heard and understood." [deepgram.com](https://deepgram.com/careers)
- **Annual offsites**: While remote-first, the company convenes annually for in-person offsites to foster collaboration and connection. [deepgram.com](https://deepgram.com/careers)
- **Engineering culture**: Values include "be curious," "grow together," "do the right thing," "think smart, act fast," and "put the customer first." The culture is described as self-motivated, positive, passionate, and competitive. [deepgram.com](https://deepgram.com/careers)
- **Research-driven environment**: Deepgram was founded by physicists and maintains a strong research team (Research Scientist, Research Engineer roles), offering the chance to work on cutting-edge AI. [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/deepgram)
- **Salary transparency**: Publicly lists salary ranges for roles (e.g., Research Scientist $150K-$250K, SDR $50K-$60K), indicating compensation transparency. [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/deepgram)

## Sources
1. [deepgram.com - Careers Page](https://deepgram.com/careers)
2. [deepgram.com - Product Page](https://deepgram.com/)
3. [deepgram.com - About Page](https://deepgram.com/about)
4. [ycombinator.com - Deepgram Profile](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/deepgram)
5. [linkedin.com - Deepgram Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/deepgram)

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