Modulate is the leader in conversational voice intelligence. We enable 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 Conversation Intelligence Platform — APIs, workflows, and applications that bring voice understanding to customers at enterprise scale.
We're looking for a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to help advance the state of voice understanding at Modulate. In this role, you'll design, train, evaluate, and deploy cutting-edge machine learning models that power our products. You'll work closely with researchers, engineers, product leaders, and executives to bring innovative ML solutions from concept to production.
Your Impact- Develop and deploy high-quality machine learning models that power Modulate's products
- Advance our capabilities in conversational voice intelligence through applied research and engineering
- Help translate business needs into scalable ML solutions
- Improve model performance, reliability, and efficiency across our platform
- Contribute to a collaborative, high-performing engineering culture
- Design, train, evaluate, and deploy machine learning models for production applications
- Collaborate with engineers, researchers, product managers, and company leadership to define and execute on ML initiatives
- Conduct experiments to improve model quality, accuracy, robustness, and scalability
- Partner with platform and infrastructure teams to operationalize and monitor ML systems in production
- Analyze model performance and identify opportunities for improvement
- Communicate technical findings, tradeoffs, and recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Contribute to technical strategy and help shape the future direction of Modulate's ML systems
- Review code, share knowledge, and mentor teammates as needed
- Stay current on advances in machine learning and identify opportunities to apply new techniques to our products
- Experience conducting machine learning research and shipping models to production
- Strong experience building and deploying production-grade machine learning systems
- Strong experience with Python and PyTorch
- Experience designing experiments and evaluating model performance
- Ability to work across research and engineering disciplines to deliver business impact
- Strong communication skills and the ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly
- Experience working collaboratively in cross-functional environments
- Experience communicating research externally through papers, conferences, or open-source contributions
- Experience with audio models or speech systems (ASR, TTS, speaker modeling, etc.)
- Experience with cloud infrastructure, especially AWS
- Experience building and maintaining large-scale ML infrastructure or MLOps systems
- Experience in fast-paced startup environments
- 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 with core in-office days and flexible remote options
- Leadership and technical learning sessions
- Career development and continued growth support
- Up to 8 weeks work-from-anywhere policy
- A deeply inclusive, human-centered culture
Modulate believes in transparency as a cornerstone of equity and trust. Compensation for this role is based on seniority, skills, and experience.
Salary: $170,000–$200,000
Equity: Offered
Additional benefits include HSA, FSA, 15 company holidays, and professional development resources.
Candidates may be located anywhere in the U.S., with preference for proximity to major tech hubs such as Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, or Austin.
About ModulateModulate 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.
A Quick Note as You Apply- Please apply through the website rather than emailing [email protected].
- For application questions ("Your fit for the role," "Your values/goals," and "Why Modulate?"), focus on relevant experience and motivations.
- Avoid including protected demographic information.
- Keep responses authentic and in your own voice.
Skills Required
- Experience conducting machine learning research and shipping models to production
- Strong experience building and deploying production-grade machine learning systems
- Strong experience with Python
- Strong experience with PyTorch
- Experience designing experiments and evaluating model performance
- Ability to work across research and engineering disciplines to deliver business impact
- Strong communication skills and ability to explain complex technical concepts
- Experience working collaboratively in cross-functional environments
- Experience communicating research externally (papers, conferences, open-source)
- Experience with audio models or speech systems (ASR, TTS, speaker modeling)
- Experience with cloud infrastructure, especially AWS
- Experience building and maintaining large-scale ML infrastructure or MLOps systems
- Experience in fast-paced startup environments
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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