We're hiring a Director of Engineering to own two of our most technically challenging areas: the real-time systems that power every live call, and the applied AI research that determines how those calls sound and feel.
You'll lead two teams: one responsible for the real-time call delivery infrastructure that handles every live voice interaction at scale, and one doing proprietary model work on the problems that matter most to voice quality, end-of-utterance detection, voice activity detection, answering machine detection, and STT accuracy. These are active, production-impacting problems, not research projects.
This is the right role for someone comfortable at the intersection of applied AI and real-time systems, not a pure researcher, and not a pure product EM. You'll work closely with Regal's Staff+ AI Engineering lead as a peer and collaborator, and you'll have room to grow into broader engineering ownership as the team scales.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Lead and develop engineers across two teams, set expectations, support career growth, and run a tight hiring bar. You thrive on managing people and view it as a privilege
- Own the technical roadmap for real-time call delivery and applied voice AI, in collaboration with Product, AI Engineering, and the broader eng leadership team
- Drive the applied AI roadmap: improving how AI agents talk to humans (pace, timing, accuracy, and warmth) and the contact center AI capabilities that make agents more effective in production
- Do whatever it takes to unblock your teams, whether that's changing a process, pair debugging, or cutting through cross-functional friction
- Work closely with product and engineering leadership to drive innovation and collaboration
- Maintain a strong peer relationship with Regal's AI Engineering lead, collaborative, not territorial. Applied model work intersects with research; managing that handoff well is part of the job.
- Represent engineering in cross-functional conversations on voice quality, latency, and AI agent reliability
- Be actively involved in hiring: sourcing, interviewing, and onboarding
WHAT YOU'LL OWN:
- Real-time call delivery: The systems that route, handle, and manage live voice calls. Telephony reliability, call delivery at scale. This team is the layer where every agent capability meets every customer.
- Applied voice AI: Proprietary model work on the hardest voice quality problems: end-of-utterance (EOU) detection, voice activity detection (VAD), answering machine detection (AMD), STT accuracy, and p95 latency. Small team, high-leverage output.
ABOUT YOU:
- 8+ years of experience in software engineering, with meaningful time in systems where latency and reliability are first-class constraints
- 4+ years in engineering management, including experience managing mid to senior level engineers
- An entrepreneurial mindset, we're not looking for someone to run a playbook. We want you to help build it.
- Comfortable operating at the boundary of research and engineering, you know how to take a model improvement and turn it into a production system, and vice versa
- Strong communication skills, you can translate complex technical tradeoffs for product stakeholders and work effectively with researchers
- Excellent judgment on prioritization, applied AI work is inherently exploratory; you know how to scope it against production impact
NICE TO HAVE:
- Hands-on experience with STT/TTS pipelines, voice activity detection, or telephony infrastructure
- Prior work on latency-sensitive ML inference systems in production
- Experience with LLM orchestration or agent evaluation frameworks
- Familiarity with WebSockets, real-time audio, or WebRTC
- Prior startup experience at the Series B–D stage
BENEFITS/PERKS
- We care about your health!
- Medical, Dental, and Vision plans - 80% covered by the company
- Flexible PTO & 11 paid holidays/year
- We care about future you!
- 401k Plan
- Paid parental leave
- Pre-tax commuter benefits
- We care about connection!
- In-office breakfast and snacks daily
- Happy hours, team outings, & annual off-sites
- Complete laptop workstation
- & more to come!
Skills Required
- 8+ years of experience in software engineering, including systems with strict latency and reliability constraints
- 4+ years of engineering management experience managing mid to senior engineers
- Experience operating at the boundary of research and engineering; turning model improvements into production systems
- Strong communication skills to translate technical tradeoffs for product and research stakeholders
- Excellent judgment on prioritization for exploratory applied AI vs. production impact
- Active involvement in hiring: sourcing, interviewing, and onboarding engineers
- Entrepreneurial mindset and willingness to build processes rather than run a preset playbook
- Hands-on experience with STT/TTS pipelines, VAD, or telephony infrastructure
- Experience with latency-sensitive ML inference systems in production
- Familiarity with LLM orchestration or agent evaluation frameworks
- Familiarity with WebSockets, real-time audio, or WebRTC
- Prior startup experience at Series B-D stage
What the Team is Saying
Regal Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage includes medical, dental, and vision with a substantial employer-paid share, alongside mental-health support via counseling sessions. This combination is consistently presented as a core part of the package.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Flexible PTO is paired with a defined set of paid holidays. This structure offers flexibility while preserving clear, predictable time-off anchors.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity grants and performance bonuses are positioned as key elements of total rewards. Job materials and company profiles repeatedly indicate equity availability across roles.
Regal Insights
What We Do
Founded in 2020, Regal is the AI Agent Platform. Regal gives every company the tools to transform customer communications with delightful AI Agents that are connected to your data, easy to customize and monitor, always-available, and ready to take action. Our Values Customers are Royalty We serve our customers above all else. If we don’t earn their love, someone else will. Fast Execution Wins We work with urgency and speed because by moving forward we learn more about how to solve the problem than by theorizing. Growth Mindset Your learning curve should be as steep as the company’s growth curve. Data Beats Opinion We make decisions based on analysis and data, not anecdotes. Enjoy the Journey We bring our whole selves to work and build meaningful friendships. We appreciate, and are kind to, each other.
Why Work With Us
At Regal, every team member makes an impact. We move fast, solve complex challenges, and build game-changing AI solutions—together. Our culture thrives on fast execution, data-driven decisions, and continuous learning. If you want to grow, be challenged, and work with brilliant, motivated people, Regal is where you want to be.
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Regal Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
We're in the office Tues-Thurs & WFH/Office Optional on Mon/Fri. Our HQ is in NYC. Annual offsites in fun spots such as Breckenridge, Miami, CT & more!
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