Software Engineer, HeyGen Labs

About HeyGen

At HeyGen, our mission is to make visual storytelling accessible to all. Over the last decade, visual content has become the preferred method of information creation, consumption, and retention. But the ability to create such content, in particular videos, continues to be costly and challenging to scale. Our ambition is to build technology that equips more people with the power to reach, captivate, and inspire audiences.
Learn more at www.heygen.com.  Visit our Mission and Culture doc here. 

The Opportunity

We’re seeking an experienced and passionate software engineer to collaborate with founders closely to drive our most high potential innovation - Interactive Avatar - the visual interface of realtime AI solutions powered by the most cutting-edge AI from HeyGen that is revolutionizing various use cases including online education, learning and development, customer support, sales and so on. 

As one of the founding engineers, you will start from going to customers and partners with founders and solving technical challenges with product engineering, infra and research teams, to planning and delivering a world class product experience and set the standard for the next generation of softwares.

Key Responsibilities

• Help shape the architecture and infrastructure to support scalability, low latency, and high availability as the product grows.
• Take full ownership of core backend systems and vendor integrations, driving performance and reliability improvements.
• Collaborate with GTM, infra, and research teams to build real-time, interactive AI experiences that push the boundaries of what’s possible.
• Rapidly gain proficiency in the full tech stack, from backend systems to real-time streaming and frontend surfaces.
• Translate customer needs into technical solutions that move the business forward.
• Triage and resolve complex technical issues across the stack, ensuring stability and a seamless user experience.
• Proactively identify opportunities to improve our technology and development processes, contributing ideas and solutions.
• Grow cultural and technical influence by demonstrating strong execution, technical excellence, and alignment with the company culture.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on backend engineering experience, with a proven track record of delivering production systems at scale.
• Deep expertise in backend development using languages such as Node.js, Python, or Go, and strong experience building on cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or similar).
• Solid understanding of real-time systems, including WebRTC, streaming architectures, and low-latency APIs.
• Experience deploying AI-powered models into production environments, especially in areas such as speech, vision, or conversational AI.
• Exceptional collaboration and communication skills, comfortable working across diverse teams including frontend, infrastructure, research, sales, and customer success.
• A self-starter with a growth mindset—motivated to take ownership, solve hard problems, and grow into a leadership role over time.

Bonus

• Proven experience building and scaling real-time interactive systems such as voice/video chat, live customer support platforms, or virtual agents.
• Prior experience with avatars, virtual assistants, or generative media technologies.
• Familiarity with large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI, Claude, or Gemini, and prompt orchestration pipelines.
• Startup founder or early-stage builder mindset—hungry to win, scrappy, and deeply motivated by urgency and impact.

Why Join Us?

• Be part of one of the fastest-growing companies at the intersection of AI and media.
• Work with a team of world-class researchers, engineers, and creatives.
• Work with founders directly for massive impact
• Competitive compensation, equity, and benefits.