Backend Engineer

Posted Yesterday
Be an Early Applicant
Somerville, MA, USA
Hybrid
140K-170K Annually
Mid level
Artificial Intelligence • Cloud • Gaming • Machine Learning • Software • Virtual Reality • Cybersecurity
Reimagining voice online—so every conversation feels safe, respectful, and empowering for everyone.
The Role
As a Backend Engineer, you will design, build, and scale APIs for Modulate's conversation intelligence platform, enhancing system performance and reliability while collaborating with product teams.
Summary Generated by Built In

Join Modulate as we pioneer the future of conversational intelligence.

Modulate is the leader in conversational voice intelligence. We enable platforms and enterprises to deeply understand how people communicate and take timely action based on those insights.

Our products help detect harm, prevent fraud, and build safer, more trusted online and real-world voice environments. We are building a self-serve Conversation Intelligence Platform — APIs, workflows, and applications that bring voice understanding to customers at enterprise scale.

We are building a self-serve Conversation Intelligence Platform — APIs, workflows, and applications that bring voice understanding to customers at enterprise scale.

We’re looking for a Backend Engineer to help build and scale our Developer and Enterprise APIs.

Your Impact

You will play a critical role in bringing our world-class ML audio models to market through robust, scalable APIs. Your work will directly impact both our product velocity and our ability to serve enterprise and developer customers.

  • Develop and Iterate on early-stage products that are key to Modulate’s success
  • Expand the capabilities and use cases supported by our APIs
  • Improve scalability, reliability, and performance across core systems
  • Establish strong architectural foundations for long-term growth
  • Accelerate Modulate’s ability to serve both B2B and B2C customers
What You Will Do
  • Collaborate with engineers and product leaders to scope, design, and execute API projects
  • Design, build, test, and deploy API features and improvements
  • Maintain and operate production APIs to ensure reliability and performance
  • Debug issues and continuously improve system stability and scalability
  • Contribute to team knowledge through mentorship, demos, and technical discussions
What We Are Looking For
  • Strong experience with object-oriented Python
  • Experience designing and building APIs in production environments
  • Proven ability to collaborate effectively within engineering teams
  • Experience building greenfield systems and scaling existing products
Benefits

At Modulate, we prioritize people and sustainability—because doing great work requires feeling supported and safe. Some of our key benefits include:

  • Competitive salary + equity- Full health, dental, and vision coverage
  • Flexible PTO, with a strong culture of taking it
  • Weekly team lunches with dietary accommodations
  • Hybrid work: core in-office days with flexible remote options
  • Regular leadership and industry learning sessions
  • Support for career development and continued learning
  • Up to 8 weeks work-from-anywhere policy
  • A deeply inclusive, human-centered culture
Pay Transparency

Modulate believes in transparency as a cornerstone of equity and trust. Compensation for this role is based on seniority, skills, and experience.

Salary: $140,000 to 170,000 
Equity: Offered
Other perks: HSA, FSA, 15 holidays, professional growth resources

About Modulate

Modulate is on a mission to make voice a force for good online. Our tools help communities thrive by proactively detecting toxic behavior, protecting user identity, and empowering safety teams. We’re trusted by leaders in gaming and beyond—and we’re growing fast.

We believe that great cultures don’t just happen. That’s why we’ve built a foundation of intentional systems: from bias-reducing hiring practices to transparent pay to tools that help teams collaborate across communication styles. At Modulate, we treat people like people—and we’re building technology that does the same.

Ready to join us? Apply here or reach out directly—we’re excited to meet you.

Top Skills

APIs
Python
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The Company
HQ: Somerville, MA
41 Employees
Year Founded: 2017

What We Do

Modulate designs and builds prosocial voice intelligence, empowering platforms to transform voice interactions into safe, trustworthy experiences. Our flagship product, ToxMod, is a proactive voice moderation system that goes beyond keyword scanning. Utilizing layered machine learning models—designed to detect emotional tone, speech patterns, conversational context, and intent—ToxMod identifies toxic behaviors as they occur. This nuanced approach allows moderators and trust-and-safety teams to intervene before harm escalates, not after, significantly reducing negative interactions in real time. As of October 2024, ToxMod has moderated over 160 million hours of voice data, resulting in more than 80 million moderator interventions that make online environments safer and more welcoming for users. While gaming was our launchpad, ToxMod now extends its protection into gig economy and customer service platforms. With Confidential Connect, platforms can safeguard privacy by anonymizing phone interactions and surfacing actionable insights when harm or fraud is detected in voice communication. Our modular model architecture—with specialized detectors for emotion, deception, harassment, phishing, and more—is both highly accurate and explainable. This allows for rapid adaptation: when collaborating with a gig platform in early 2024, we stood up a fraud-detection module within a month using the same system. Beyond voice safety, Modulate empowers platforms with compliance support and community health strategies. Our tools drive insights for transparency reporting, code-of-conduct alignment, and evolving regulatory needs—like those shaped by AI policy, trust and safety frameworks, and user privacy laws. In summary: Modulate transforms voice—from chat, phone, or AI agent—to an asset for trust, safety, and user well-being. We're building tools that don’t just respond to harm—they anticipate it. Whether it’s protecting gamers, customer-care agents, gig workers, or social communities, Modulate empowers platforms to safeguard human connection in the voice-first era.

Why Work With Us

Modulate stands out by combining real-time voice‑native AI with a mission-driven focus on safety, inclusion, and explainability. Working here means building cutting-edge, trust-first technology that protects real communities—while growing in a transparent, people-centered culture that values impact just as much as innovation.

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