We are small, profitable company located in scenic Marin, just a few miles north of San Francisco. Our goal is to empower software developers with tools that allow them to easily create voice-enabled apps and products with on-device speech recognition capabilities that do not require an internet connection. We are disciplined, frugal, and focused on solutions to real problems in various industries.
Our customers include companies that help kids learn how to read or learn a new language, robotics and medical companies, gaming companies, companies that develop enterprise solutions, large entertainment companies, medical device manufacturers, and companies that build domain-specific virtual assistants. Apps and products that use KeenASR SDK have processed tens of millions of audio responses and tens of thousands of hours of audio.
We are taking the path less traveled; the company has been bootstrapped, has a number of paying customers, and is now ready to expand the team. We strongly believe that a small, tight-knit group of smart people can make a huge impact. This is where you come in...
Principal Engineer
The role is based in Sausalito, California; we will consider remote candidates.
We are looking for an exceptional hands-on technical leader with strong experience in ASR and related fields, who can lead technical development of our core stack. This is a technical leadership role with a heavy hands-on bias in the beginning; it comes with significant founder-level equity and competitive pay/benefits, appropriate for early stage company.
What you’ll do:
- You will lead technical activities related to our SDK for on-device speech recognition and soon NLU and Dialog Management. Starting with defining the API, implementing it so it runs on mobile devices, all the way to training and deploying various machine learning models.
- Over time, you will hire and manage a small team of developers and researchers that will help you solve these problems.
- You will have a large impact in setting the technical as well as overall direction of the company. Products powered by our SDK touch millions of people.
Who you are:
- You are relentlessly resourceful, not taken aback by challenges and setbacks. You have bias for action, you are comfortable with uncertainty, you are able to quickly make decisions. You understand the difference between good-enough and perfect.
- You are curious and open-minded.
- You have a strong background in ASR, NLP, and dialog management, with extensive experience in machine learning, deep learning, evaluation and optimization techniques.
- You dream in C++ and Python, you juggle build systems with your left hand while reviewing/merging a PR with your right hand.
- You can communicate clearly and effectively on various fronts: technical, business, life.
- You have an itch to make things... you don't have patience for long meetings, office politics... You create software, you fix/make hardware (be it your computer or your dishwasher). We are looking for somebody who loves to build things.
- You are okay with trading publicity (publishing at conferences, arxiv, etc.) for an opportunity to solve super-interesting real-life problems and grow the business.
- You have ability (experience is helpful) in leading technical teams, taking responsibility and delivering technical products in early stage companies.
- You have experience with: C++, Python, PyTorch/TensorFlow, Kaldi, ESPNet, OpenFst, deep learning, language models, end2end ASR, BLAS, Android, iOS, ObjC, Java
While this describes the ideal candidate, we are well aware that life is far from being ideal; we don't expect you to completely fit the description, as long as you are open-minded and willing to grow with the company (you will have a strong support from us).
