Research Engineer - Audio & Speech Models

ZYPHRA IS AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COMPANY BASED IN SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. THE ROLE: As a Research Engineer - Audio & Speech Models, you will be a core contributor on Zyphra’s Audio Team, building the next generation of open-source autoencoders, ASR, TTS, SSL, and speech-to-speech models. You will be deeply involved in the entire model training process, from data gathering and processing to designing novel architectures and training methodologies. YOU’LL WORK ACROSS: - Large-scale audio training runs - Performance optimization of our training stack - Audio dataset collection, processing, and evaluation - Architecture and training methodology ablations and improvements WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR / REQUIREMENTS: - Strong research taste and intuition. The ability to work through a research project from conception to execution to write-up. - Strong implementation and prototyping ability (can take an idea from conception to experimentation quickly) - The ability to work well with others in a high-paced research setting - Excellent communication and collaboration skills, and can work effectively on both research and engineering implementation at scale QUALIFICATIONS / ADDITIONAL SKILLS: - Expertise and intuition for training models in the audio domain, including text-to-speech, ASR, speech-to-speech, speech-emotion-recognition, or other models - Experience in training audio autoencoders - Understanding of signal processing, especially of audio signals - Experience with diffusion models, consistency models, or GANs - Experience with training on large-scale (multi-node) GPU clusters - Strong grasp of proper experimental methodology for running rigorous ablations and other hypothesis testing - Understanding of and interest in large-scale, highly parallel data processing pipelines - Proficiency with PyTorch and Python - Experience contributing to large pre-existing codebases and rapidly getting up to speed - Previously published machine learning research in well-respected venues - Postgraduate degree in a scientific subject (Computer Science, EE/EECS, Mathematics, Physics, Machine Learning) WHY WORK AT ZYPHRA: - Our research methodology is grounded in methodical, step-by-step approaches to ambitious goals. Both deep research and engineering excellence are equally valued - We strongly value new and crazy ideas and are very willing to bet big on new ideas - We move as quickly as we can; we aim to minimize the bar to impact as low as possible - We all enjoy what we do and love discussing AI BENEFITS AND PERKS: - Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and FSA plans - Competitive compensation and 401(k) plan - Relocation and immigration support on a case-by-case basis - In-office snacks and meals provided - Unlimited PTO and company holidays - In-person team in San Francisco with a collaborative, high-energy environment