Software Engineer, SoundHound
Inference Engine, C++, Python
+equity
More information about location
Conversational AI platform
Be an early applicant
Conversational AI platform
201-500 employees
Be an early applicant
+equity
More information about location
201-500 employees
Company mission
To create a voice AI platform that exceeds human capabilities and brings value and delight via an ecosystem of billions of products enhanced by innovation and monetization opportunities.
Role
Who you are
- You have excellent general software engineering skills and discipline
- You have professional experience with both C++ and Python for complex systems
- You have exceptional attention to detail when solving hard technical problems, including design, refactoring, optimization, and debugging
- You are thoughtful in decision making, especially in understanding business priorities, balancing trade-offs, and managing ambiguities
- You have advanced expertise with algorithms and data structures
Desirable
- You have a strong math background (e.g. digital signal processing, machine learning, control theory, geometry, or probability theory)
- You have expertise with low-level C++ concepts such as memory management and bit-level arithmetic
- You have a deep understanding of programming with tensor math libraries (e.g. NumPy, PyTorch, Eigen)
- You are familiar with CUDA programming and GPU architecture
- You have an understanding of advanced indexing used in tensor math libraries
- You have experience with TorchScript
- You have experience with finite state transducers, abstract syntax trees, hidden Markov models, and beam search
- You have specific experience with speech recognition or general interest in linguistics
What the job involves
- SoundHound’s Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) team is currently developing and starting to roll out a state-of-the-art speech recognition system and model architecture improve accuracy, reduce complexity and cost, and enable new dynamic features to make the system more scalable and easily customized
- This project (known as Polaris) requires many cross-functional disciplines and close collaboration to be successful
- Our team (ASR Systems) is responsible for the most intensive software engineering tasks relating to developing Polaris and supporting our existing speech recognition system in production
- This particular role is for our Inference Squad, which is a highly specialized group primarily responsible for high-performance inference and model integration
- Members of the Inference Squad provide the necessary expertise to ensure alignment between the systems-focused engineers and the ASR Modeling team who focus on research and model development
- Enhance the core of our proprietary inference server (Snowcat) to support Polaris rollout and integration with various products
- Help support our existing production ASR system until we successfully replace everything with Polaris, including targeted enhancements, incident investigations, and technical analysis as needed
Our take
The world is becoming ever more voice-enabled, and SoundHound have been working for over a decade on their voice AI and conversational intelligence technology to stay ahead. The applications for top tier tech of this sort are vast, from automotive innovation through to restaurant management, and SoundHound is firmly leading the pack.
SoundHound has developed products with unrivalled accuracy across nearly two dozen languages, giving them a real edge over Google and Amazon’s competing products. To consolidate this lead, the company also made a number of strategic, big-name partnerships to broaden their products’ uptake, with the likes of Tencent, Hyundai, Nvidia, and Samsung counted among them.
By keeping its products customizable and broadly applicable, SoundHound was successful in its IPO bid, which will cement its position globally as the sector continues to develop. Although taking a hit from the poor economic climate, alongside many of its fellows, the company has secured post-IPO funds. It paid off its post-IPO debt in 2024, making it lighter on its feet as it captures new markets and customers in the voice-enabled AI sector.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
May 2018
$100m
LATE VC
Jan 2017
$75m
SERIES D
Total funding: $215m
Company benefits
- Competitive Salary
- Team Events & Happy Hours
- Comprehensive Medical Insurance
- Employee Recognition
- Equity Plans
- Catered Lunches & Tasty Snacks
Company values
- Supportive - Supportive of Each Other. We believe working as a team produces the best results, harnessing diverse perspectives to maximize our chance at success. By following through on our commitments, we build confidence and trust. We can rely on each other rather than needing “heroes” to save the day.
- Open - Open, Honest, and Ethical, Even When It’s Hard. Solving problems requires us to ask tough questions and raise critical issues. If something isn’t working, we get honest feedback and input, taking accountability for success or failure. We embrace “radical candor” to get to the heart of a problem and do the right thing, even when it’s hard.
- Undaunted - Undaunted By Challenges and Obstacles. When faced with obstacles, we never give up. Instead, we dig deep to find creative solutions, make a decision, and execute. Our belief in our shared mission gives us purpose, confidence, and resolve. Ultimately, we find a way to win because failure is not an option.
- Nimble - Nimble, Focused, Fast – and Always Learning. In a world of constant change, we adapt and move with the appropriate urgency. This means choosing the best path versus trying to do it all. We embrace “scrappiness” because the winning solution is often the one that gives us an early advantage. We learn from mistakes and keep going.
- Determined - Determined to Excel and Win. Products built from the hearts and minds of users get adopted by them. We strengthen our insights through data and we grow our business by solving customer problems at scale. We take pride in creating excellent products that customers want over anything else.
Company HQ
Santa Clara, CA
Articles
Leadership
Keyvan Mohajer
(CEO )Having taken a PhD at Stanford, Keyvan worked as CTO of InsuranceHotline.com before founding ZumoSoftware, where they spent 4 years as CTO. They founded SoundHound in December 2004, while at Stanford, and have served since as President and CEO.
Majid Emami
(CSO & SVP of Engineering)After graduating Stanford University, they went onto co-found SoundHound as VP of Engineering, before becoming CSO and SVP of Engineering in 2022.
James Hom
(CPO)Having earned their Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Stanford University, they went onto co-found SoundHound. First, they lead all product development as VP of Products, before becoming CPO.
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