Our mission is to reinvent the way people learn, starting with language.
Learning a language can change a life by opening doors to new cultures, careers, and communities. Two billion people around the world are actively trying to learn a language, but the best way to learn (one-on-one tutoring) is hard to access at scale and hasn’t been meaningfully improved in decades. Speak is building a human-level, AI-powered tutor in your pocket: a conversation-first experience that lets learners actually speak, get instant feedback, and progress through carefully designed lessons. The result is a complete path from beginner to confident speaker across multiple languages.
Speak first launched in South Korea in 2019, where Speak has now become the number one language learning app, and we now serve learners across many markets and 15+ languages. Speak is one of the world’s leading AI companies, with over $150m raised in venture investment from OpenAI, Accel, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and more, with a distributed team across San Francisco, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, and Ljubljana.
About This RoleWe're looking for a User Operations Intern to help us understand and grow our user base as we launch in a new market. You'll talk to users directly, turn feedback into clear insights, and support the community and campus programs that drive organic growth. You'll work closely with Product, Engineering and CX to make sure what we learn from users actually shapes what we build. This is a great fit if you're curious about how consumer products find their footing and want to be close to real user learning from day one.
This is a hybrid role based in Shanghai, with onsite presence preferred.
Support Speak's user and community operations
Conduct user interviews, collect feedback and summarize key user insights
Support community engagement, user testing and basic data analysis
Support Campus Referral, Ambassador and other organic growth initiatives
Work with Product, Engineering and CX teams to follow up on key user issues
Current undergraduate or graduate student; any major is welcome
Strong interest in consumer products, user research, AI or language learning
Strong communication, structured thinking and basic analytical skills
Good English communication skills and comfort working with a global team
A self-motivated mindset and comfort in a fast-moving startup environment
Availability 3–5 days per week for at least 3 months
Join a fantastic, tight-knit team at the right time: we're growing very quickly, we've most recently raised our Series C from some of the top investors in the valley, and we've achieved product-market fit in our initial markets. You'd join at a magical time when a single person could significantly change the course of the company.
Do your life's work with people you’ll love working with: we care strongly about our craft and want every person at Speak to feel like they're growing every day. We believe in the idea that working with people you both enjoy and have respect for makes everything better. We hire thoughtfully and only work with people we admire deeply.
Global in nature: We're live in over 40 countries and launching in a number of new markets soon. We have dedicated offices in San Francisco, Ljubljana, Seoul, Tokyo, and Taipei, and you’ll have the opportunity to talk to users in each of these regions on a regular basis as well as travel.
Impact people's lives in a major way: Learning a language is one of the single most life-changing skills one can learn, and right now 99% of people never achieve their goal because the process is broken. We’re helping millions of people achieve their goals and improve their lives.
Speak does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
Skills Required
- Currently enrolled as an undergraduate or graduate student
- Strong interest in consumer products, user research, AI, or language learning
- Strong communication skills
- Structured thinking and basic analytical skills
- Good English communication skills
- Comfort working with a global team
- Self-motivated mindset
- Comfort working in a fast-moving startup environment
- Availability three to five days per week for at least three months
Speak Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Speak and has not been reviewed or approved by Speak.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as including medical, dental, and vision insurance, indicating a comprehensive core offering. Feedback suggests these plans are positioned as a standard part of the package across sources.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Unlimited PTO and parental leave are consistently listed, signaling broad time-off options. Feedback suggests these policies are intended to support flexibility and work-life balance.
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Flexible Benefits — Monthly wellness and language-learning stipends, along with company offsites and travel opportunities, point to a flexible and modern perks mix. Feedback suggests these extras complement the core benefits for a well-rounded package.
Speak Insights
What We Do
Speak is a language learning app that sets users on the path to fluency with the world’s most advanced AI tutor. Built on the core learning philosophy of getting users speaking out loud as much as possible, Speak's AI language-learning experience encourages dynamic two-way dialogue through personalized content and real-time speech recognition. Speak was founded by Connor Zwick and Andrew Hsu in 2016 to democratize access to high quality language education through AI. Backed by Y Combinator, Open AI, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Matrix Partners and more, Speak is a series B startup with a global presence and offices in San Francisco, Seoul, Tokyo, and Ljubljana. Featured by Apple as the ‘App of the Day’ and ‘Best New App’, Speak is hiring across the globe. Come join us as we teach the next billion people English and reinvent the way the world learns, staring with language





