Role overview
- Identify high-leverage research problems across the voice AI stac: synthesis, modeling, alignment, perception, and take full ownership of driving them forward
- Design and run rigorous experiments, then translate what works into shipped improvements to our models and product
- Work directly with research engineers to move fast from prototype to production
- Help set the scientific direction of the team and raise the bar on how we do research
- A track record of original research - you've found a real problem, developed a novel approach, and seen it through
- Deep expertise in at least one of: speech synthesis, ASR, audio modeling, language modeling, or multimodal learning
- Fluency in the math, probability, optimization, linear algebra, and the ability to reason about model behavior from first principles
- You move fluidly between ideas and implementation; you don't just write papers, you build things
- Clear, precise written and verbal communication
Preferred qualifications
- Publications at top venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, Interspeech, ICASSP, ACL, etc.)
- Experience with generative modeling, diffusion, flow matching, codec-based audio, or autoregressive models
- Familiarity with RLHF or preference optimization
- You are a former founder
Benefits
- Top-tier compensation: in order to get the best talent, we provide salary and equity that recognize your skillset
- Meals: free breakfast, lunch, and dinner provided in the office
- Healthcare: Comprehensive health, dental, and vision
- We have regular off-sites and team celebrations
- 401(k) – Let us help you plan for the future. We’ve got you covered.
About the company
Phonic is a product and research lab focused on powering the most realistic, human-like voice AI conversations. We've re-thought the entire stack in pursuit of this goal, from models to product, to create voice agents that feel like they truly understand you, respond emotionally and perform agentic tasks with frontier intelligence.
Our team includes top-tier AI researchers, international olympiad medalists, and former founders.
Our customers include companies that are building voice-native AI products in industries such as customer support, healthcare, and logistics. We have raised over $30M from First Round and Lux Capital.
Tags & focus areas
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