Staff Engineer, Slang.ai
$190-205k
AI-powered virtual phone assistant
Be an early applicant
AI-powered virtual phone assistant
21-100 employees
Be an early applicant
$190-205k
21-100 employees
Company mission
To transform the phone into a channel that is personalized, efficient, and delightful.
Role
Who you are
- 10+ years in software engineering, with significant experience in JVM-based applications and systems design
- BS/MS in Computer Science or related field
- Deep expertise in domain-driven design patterns, object-oriented design, and software architecture principles
- Strong experience developing backend services with Kotlin (or extensive JVM experience with Java, Scala, or Clojure)
- Experience using functional programming languages or paradigms in production environments
- Experience designing data models and implementing solutions with Firestore or similar NoSQL databases
- Proficiency in developing cloud-native applications for Google Cloud Platform (or another cloud environment)
- Experience with containerized applications using Docker and orchestration with Kubernetes
- Knowledge of dependency management, versioning strategies, and maintaining secure software supply chains
- Experience implementing observability patterns and writing maintainable, debuggable code
- Demonstrated success in designing and implementing systems that meet compliance requirements (e.g., SOC 2)
- Ability and willingness to participate in our on-call rotation
- Experience integrating with external services and APIs
- Ability to think strategically about technical architecture, code quality, and reliability/complexity/cost trade-offs
- Excellent communication skills, especially translating complex technical concepts to cross-functional stakeholders
- A desire to mentor engineers and elevate the team's software engineering practices
- Pro-activity and ability to not only solve complex technical problems yourself but also guide others through collaborative solutions
What the job involves
- This role has high impact technical leadership responsibilities
- As one of our most senior engineers, you'll work across our telephony and platform stack, collaborating closely with our Platform & Data pod and serving as a technical mentor to our broader engineering organization (~10 people total) in software engineering best practices
- You'll help establish architectural patterns that ensure our systems are modular, testable, and adaptable to changing requirements
- Within your pod, you'll focus on designing and implementing elegant backend services using Kotlin, crafting thoughtful data models for Firestore, and ensuring our containerized services operate reliably in Google Cloud Platform environments
- You'll work with telephony providers like Twilio and conversational AI platforms like Dialogflow to create seamless communication experiences, while also guiding the implementation of proper monitoring and observability solutions
- Your architectural decisions and engineering leadership will directly influence the entire engineering team's productivity and the quality of our customer-facing systems
- What Success Looks Like
- Success means delivering high-quality software solutions that balance technical excellence, business requirements, and operational reliability while contributing to our engineering team's growth
- Design and develop robust, maintainable backend systems using Kotlin that power our telephony services while ensuring code quality, testability, and adherence to domain-driven design principles
- Architect data models and access patterns for Firestore that optimize for both performance and maintainability while supporting evolving business requirements
- Implement clean, well-structured integrations with telephony providers like Twilio and conversational AI platforms like Dialogflow, ensuring fault tolerance and graceful error handling
- Drive technical excellence by mentoring team members on software engineering best practices and fostering a culture of code quality and continuous improvement
- Establish and maintain SOC2 compliance practices in our codebase, ensuring proper security controls, audit trails, and documentation to meet regulatory requirements
- Create and enforce dependency management strategies that balance staying current with managing security vulnerabilities while minimizing disruption to development workflows
- Implement comprehensive observability solutions that provide actionable insights into application performance and behavior, enabling data-driven improvements
- Design and develop containerized services that follow best practices for cloud-native applications, emphasizing scalability, resilience, and operational efficiency
- Reduce technical debt through thoughtful refactoring, architectural improvements, and clear documentation that enhances the overall maintainability of our systems
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to transform business requirements into elegant technical solutions that deliver value to our customers
- Stay current with developments in software engineering, JVM ecosystem, and cloud-native technologies, evaluating and adopting practices that enhance our engineering capabilities
- Technical Excellence
- Design and implement software architectures that balance maintainability, performance, and business requirements
- Achieve measurable improvements in code quality, test coverage, and technical debt reduction
- Establish patterns for secure, compliant software that meets SOC 2 requirements while remaining flexible and extensible
- System Reliability
- Reduce production incidents through thoughtful error handling, graceful degradation, and defensive coding practices
- Implement comprehensive observability that enables rapid diagnosis and resolution of issues
- Create resilient integrations with external services (Twilio, Dialogflow) that handle failures elegantly
- Team Development
- Mentor engineers on JVM ecosystem best practices, domain-driven design, and clean code principles
- Create practical training programs and documentation that elevate the team's software engineering capabilities
- Demonstrate the team's increased velocity and confidence in delivering high-quality software through knowledge sharing and pairing
- Technical Innovation
- Evaluate and introduce appropriate new technologies that align with our stack (GCP, Kotlin, Firestore)
- Implement effective dependency management practices that keep our stack current and secure
- Balance innovation with stability to ensure consistent delivery of business value
Our take
The frustration surrounding calling businesses is a universal sentiment. Nobody enjoys enduring long hold times when trying to inquire about an order or encountering voicemail when urgently attempting to make a reservation at a local restaurant. However, through the power of AI, the broken calling experience can be repaired.
Slang is a platform designed to tackle this problem head-on. By automatically answering calls for restaurants, retailers, and other businesses, Slang acts as a team member and delivers accurate responses that help drive increased revenues. It enables businesses to provide enhanced customer service while streamlining their operations.
Emerging from stealth mode in 2023, Sland has made waves with the announcement of a successful funding round. With this momentum, the company sets its sights on integrating its product with reservation management platforms while unveiling a host of advanced functionalities fueled by generative AI. This strategic expansion holds the potential to revolutionise the phone experience, delivering enhanced benefits for businesses and customers alike.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Jun 2023
$20m
SERIES A
May 2020
$0.8m
SEED
Total funding: $20.8m
Company benefits
- Generous equity
- Healthcare fully compensated
- Generous vacation
Company HQ
Civic Center, New York, NY
Leadership
Alex Sambvani
(CEO)Graduated from Harvard Business School with a Masters in Business Administration. Previously worked as a Senior Data Scientist at Spotify.
Gabriel Duncan
(CTO)Graduated from Columbia University with a BASc in Applied Mathematics. Previously worked as a Data Engineer at The New York Times and as a Data Science Manager at Spotify.
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