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 RhythmAt 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.
Team Overview
The Applied AI team takes on the voice AI problems that don’t have off-the-shelf answers. We work directly with enterprise customers and technology partners, from conversational AI and customer experience platforms to restaurant brands, and much of the work is zero to one. Current focus areas include robust ASR in noisy outdoor environments, self-service fine-tuning and model adaptation, domain-aware voice agents for drive-thru and phone ordering, agent scoring and evaluation, real-time operational analytics, and on-site hardware integration. We’re a small team that works in person in San Francisco, ships to production quickly, and stays close to the customers we build for.
Key Goals
Ship production features in live voice agent products, such as drive-thru and phone ordering, within your first quarter.
Own customer problems end to end: hear the issue, find the root cause, and get the fix into production.
Help build reusable agent modules, like ordering and reservations, so new customers and industries launch faster.
Make agents more accurate on real-world menus and catalogs, keeping structured data consistent across hundreds of locations.
Contribute to fine-tuning and model adaptation so customers get accurate results on their own vocabulary and domains.
Spot problems across the product before anyone asks, then fix them or bring a proposed solution.
Run experiments that show whether new functionality improves outcomes for customers.
Minimum Skills, Knowledge & Capabilities
Experience building and shipping backend services that run in production in the cloud.
Operates AI-native: you build with modern AI coding tools as your default way of working, not occasionally, and use them to move fast without lowering the quality bar.
Learns quickly and takes on unfamiliar parts of the stack with little ramp-up.
Finds work instead of waiting for it: you recognize problems, propose solutions, and follow them through.
Has taken something from idea to production, at work or on your own time.
Communicates clearly with teammates and is comfortable working directly with customers.
Builds for the customer’s outcome, with a high bar for quality and no over-engineering.
Comfortable working across languages. Our stack is mainly Kotlin and Python, with TypeScript on the front end.
Preferred Qualifications (nice-to-have)
Hands-on experience training, fine-tuning, or adapting models, through work, research, or substantial projects.
Experience building evaluation or scoring for models or agents.
Experience with audio, speech-to-text, or text-to-speech.
Experience as a founder or early startup engineer, or taking a system from zero to one.
Typically 2+ years of engineering experience, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
Notice: We're aware of individuals impersonating Deepgram recruiters. All legitimate Deepgram recruiting communication comes from an @deepgram.com email address. If you've received a message claiming to be Deepgram, please forward it to [email protected].
Skills Required
- Experience building and shipping production backend services in the cloud
- Comfort using modern AI coding tools as a default workflow
- Ability to learn unfamiliar parts of the technology stack quickly
- Demonstrated ability to identify problems, propose solutions, and execute them independently
- Experience taking a project from idea to production, professionally or independently
- Clear communication and comfort working directly with customers
- Ability to work across Kotlin, Python, and TypeScript
- Hands-on experience training, fine-tuning, or adapting machine learning models
- Experience building model or agent evaluation and scoring systems
- Experience with audio, speech-to-text, or text-to-speech
- Experience as a founder, early startup engineer, or zero-to-one system builder
- Typically 2 or more years of engineering experience or equivalent demonstrated experience
What the Team is Saying
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Deepgram Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as comprehensive, spanning medical, dental, vision, mental health support, and wellness stipends. Employer contributions toward medical premiums are characterized as substantial, reinforcing the perceived value of the health plans.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is portrayed as a standout element, with 16 weeks of fully paid leave cited as a key benefit. This depth of support signals a strong commitment to families during critical life events.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Unlimited PTO, flexible schedules, and paid company holidays are consistently highlighted as core parts of the package. The breadth of time-off options indicates strong institutional support for rest and flexibility.
Deepgram Insights
What We Do
Deepgram is the leading voice AI platform for developers building speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS) and full speech-to-speech (STS) offerings. 200,000+ developers build with Deepgram’s voice-native foundational models – accessed through APIs or as self-managed software – due to our unmatched accuracy, latency and pricing. Customers include software companies building voice products, co-sell partners working with large enterprises, and enterprises solving internal voice AI use cases. The company ended 2024 cash-flow positive with 400+ enterprise customers, 3.3x annual usage growth across the past 4 years, over 50,000 years of audio processed and over 1 trillion words transcribed. There is no organization in the world that understands voice better than Deepgram.
Why Work With Us
Our culture, like our product, is constantly learning and evolving, but the heart of our team is enduring. We are a self-motivated, positive, passionate, and competitive group of people. At Deepgram, we put an emphasis on being ourselves, being curious, growing together, and being human. We are a unique bunch who celebrate our differences.
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Deepgram Offices
Remote Workspace
Employees work remotely.
