Senior Research Engineer, Voice + Speech

Decagon Decagon · Vertical AI · New York, NY · Engineering

Senior Research Engineer focused on developing and deploying voice and speech models for a conversational AI platform. The role involves leading research and engineering efforts to improve core conversational capabilities, build end-to-end models, and integrate them into production systems. Requires experience in post-training and deploying LLMs, Python, and ML tooling, with a track record of delivering production impact.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead research and engineering efforts to improve core conversational capabilities in production, including instruction following, retrieval, memory, and long-horizon task completion
  2. Build and iterate on end-to-end models and pipelines that optimize for quality, efficiency, and user experience
  3. Partner with platform and product engineers to integrate new models into production systems
  4. Break down ambiguous research ideas into clear, iterative milestones and roadmaps.
  5. Mentor other researchers/engineers, set technical direction, and establish best practices for applied research and engineering

Skills

Required

  • 5+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering or research
  • Prior experience post-training and deploying LLMs in production environments
  • Fluency in Python and modern ML tooling (training, evaluation, data pipelines)
  • Track record of taking research ideas from prototype → reliable, measurable production impact
  • Ability to define a roadmap, break ambiguity into milestones, and lead cross-functional execution

Nice to have

  • Experience with voice and speech models
  • Experience with conversational AI agents
  • Experience with instruction following, retrieval, memory, and long-horizon task completion

What the JD emphasized

  • post-training and deploying LLMs in production environments
  • Track record of taking research ideas from prototype → reliable, measurable production impact
  • lead the development of the models and algorithms that power Decagon’s industry-leading, real-time voice agents, and drive them all the way into production

Other signals

  • Improve core conversational capabilities in production
  • Optimize for quality, efficiency, and user experience
  • Integrate new models into production systems
  • Track record of taking research ideas from prototype -> reliable, measurable production impact