Staff Engineer, Modulate
$185k
+ Equity
More information about location
3 days a week in office (Somerville, MA)
In-game voice chat moderation
Open for applications
In-game voice chat moderation
21-100 employees
Open for applications
$185k
+ Equity
More information about location
3 days a week in office (Somerville, MA)
21-100 employees
Company mission
To create a safer more inclusive voice chat experience for all.
Role
Who you are
- This role is perfect for someone who resonates with the Solver archetype (à la Will Larson): a trusted agent of the organization who thrives in complexity and brings order to ambiguity
- Clear, thoughtful communicator and collaborator. Comfortable operating across product, design, and platform teams
- Effective in making tradeoffs between speed and quality in order to balance short- and long-term org needs
- Org-first engineer with demonstrated record of raising the team along with themselves
- Deep proficiency in modern frontend development and frontend system architecture
- Strong practical experience with database design, performance tuning, and data modeling, including relational and non-relational databases
- Demonstrated ability to navigate and set direction in ambiguous or rapidly evolving environments
- 8+ years of software engineering experience across multiple layers of the web stack, with a strong record of technical ownership and impact
- Bonus: familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred), infrastructure-as-code, and DevOps practices
What the job involves
- As a Staff Engineer at Modulate, you'll be a technical leader and systems thinker, working across the stack—but with a particular emphasis on frontend architecture, data persistence, and the interfaces that connect everything together
- You'll operate as a key partner to the Director of Engineering, diving deep into critical technical challenges that matter most to our mission
- Your work will directly impact:
- The scalability and resilience of our real-time moderation tools
- The intuitiveness and reliability of the experiences we deliver to users
- The growth of our engineering team’s technical maturity and long-term impact
- Our ability to safely scale into sensitive and high-compliance industries
- Provide technical direction across the engineering org: guiding architectural choices, mentoring teammates, and ensuring we’re building scalable, maintainable systems
- Dive deep into thorny problems in partnership with Director of Engineering. Guide development of complex projects across our products with an emphasis on frontend interfaces and high-performance data storage and retrieval patterns
- Design and evolve our web application architecture to support real-time workflows and robust moderation and investigation tools
- Collaborate with product managers, backend/ML engineers, and design partners to ensure user-facing tools are intuitive, reliable, and performant
- Shape long-term technical strategy around data models, storage, observability, and operational reliability
- Contribute to roadmap planning, technical scoping, and standards definition across teams
Application process
- NOTE for the questions "Your fit for the role", "Your values/goals", and "Why Modulate?" on the following form:
- Please avoid disclosing any details which would directly reveal your race, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or other protected demographic status. We are only looking for information which directly relates to your ability to succeed in the given role
- Additionally, we want to hear from YOU! While we understand the convenience of productivity tools and generative AI to help apply, please note that any submissions with substantial overlap or duplication with other applicant profiles will NOT be considered
Our take
Anyone who has played a multiplayer online game knows it can be a free-for-all when it comes to toxic, hate-filled, abusive, and ultimately harmful speech. Modulate is attempting to take on in-game toxic speech, and even potentially predatory behavior, with its AI-powered software ToxMod.
Despite the monumental task at hand, where chat moderation risks creating an over-policed online community, Modulate asserts that its AI can distinguish between friendly banter and sinister chat. ToxMod boasts users like PokerStars VR, Rec Room, and Gun Raiders, with the company hinting at undisclosed high-profile customers. A strategic mode towards Metaverse-based game studios aligns well with the booming growth of the Metaverse gaming industry, projected at around 40% annual growth.
In a notable development, Modulate has forged a partnership with Activision Blizzard. As part of this collaboration, Modulate's work with Activision has led to real improvements in Call of Duty (from a huge 50% drop in toxic voice chat exposure to increased player engagement and retention). Byt proving that AI-driven moderation can scale without disrupting gampole, Modulate is really setting a new standard for online safety. And with growing interest from other studios and industries, the company is well set eto expand its impact and help shape a more respectful future for multiplayer gaming.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Aug 2022
$30m
SERIES A
Apr 2022
$30m
SERIES A
Total funding: $66m
Company HQ
Davis Square, Somerville, MA
Leadership
Mike Pappas
(Co-Founder & CEO)Began their career as a Technology Associate at Bridgewater Associates before joining spend and travel management software company Lola as a Software Architect.
Carter Huffman
(Co-Founder & CTO)Previously a Software Engineer at Dimensional Insight before co-founding Modulate. Prior to this they spent two years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory working as part of the Machine Learning and Instrument Autonomy group.
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