Founding AI Engineer

About the role

We’re hiring a Founding AI Engineer to build the intelligence layer for the leading AI companion for language learning. You’ll own the core AI systems powering personalized conversations for millions of users.

Responsibilities

• Build the systems that make Pingo the default way people learn languages.
• Define and own our AI architecture and roadmap, and build the AI team as we scale.
• Architect memory & personalization — design scalable long-term memory and retrieval, build a content engine that generates structured, high-novelty conversations.
• Improve speech & conversation intelligence — optimize ASR feedback, turn-taking, and dialogue flow to make interactions feel natural.
• Own AI evals & experimentation system — build prompt simulations, golden datasets, and regression systems to measure conversation quality.
• Optimize real-time performance — drive sub-200ms latency and systems that scale efficiently across millions of conversations.
• Tie intelligence directly to retention — build systems and metrics that measurably improve D1/D7/D30 engagement.

Requirements

• Think in systems. Understand how memory, latency, evaluation, and UX interact.
• Strong product judgement — you build features that feel instant and magical.
• Run rigorous experiments and measure tradeoffs across quality, latency, and cost.
• Detail-oriented & obsessed with quality – care deeply about stability, polish, and learning impact.

Qualifications

• Experience with large-scale AI systems and architectures.
• Strong background in machine learning, natural language processing, and speech recognition.
• Experience with distributed systems and microservices.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple projects simultaneously.

Skills

• Expertise in Python, Java, or C++.
• Knowledge of deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch.
• Experience with databases and data warehousing.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work under pressure.

Benefits

Healthcare + meals + Equinox

Pay

$180k-250k cash comp + 0.5-1.5% equity

Schedule

In-person in SF