Member of Technical Staff - Product Engineer

How Nuance Differentiates

Most conversational AI avatars today are hacks - a face slapped on a speech-to-speech pipeline, stuck in the uncanny valley: emotionless, mechanical, one-turn-at-a-time. Current systems take 2-5 seconds to respond; natural conversation requires sub-500ms. That's a 10x improvement, and it demands rethinking the entire stack.

That rethinking starts with full-duplex: an AI that listens and speaks simultaneously, perceives emotion in real time, and responds with a face that actually reflects it. It's an extremely hard problem, and we're developing foundation models designed for it from the ground up.

About the Role

A great model is only part of the product. The rest is everything a person touches before, during, and after a conversation with our avatar, along with the tools our researchers rely on to make the next model better.

We're looking for a Product Engineer who can own that surface end to end, from user-facing features and our developer platform to the internal tooling behind our research. You might spend one week on a feature for a launch and the next pairing with a researcher on tooling for an upcoming study.

There's very little top-down direction here. Engineers find what needs doing, align with the people it affects, and get it done. This is a hands-on individual contributor role for someone who thrives on that kind of ownership.

What You'll Own

• Build product features end to end, from backend systems through the UI, across the full conversation experience.
• Design experiences that stay fair and responsive when demand outstrips capacity, and make sure they hold up under heavy load.
• Build and grow our developer platform, including APIs, SDKs, and documentation that make it easy for other companies to build with our avatar.
• Maintain and improve our internal research tooling, and partner with researchers to design and build features that support their studies.
• Build ways for users to share feedback that helps us improve the product and our models.
• Make sure new versions of the avatar are tested before they reach users, roll out smoothly, and scale with demand.
• Work with cross-functional partners, including legal, on privacy-conscious user flows.

What We're Looking For

• A track record of shipping product features end to end. You can walk us through what you built, the tradeoffs you made, and what happened after launch.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals in whatever languages you know best. We care more about how you think than which stack you've used.
• Proficient, everyday use of agentic AI tools, and the judgment to check their work.
• Product judgment. You care about how something feels to use, and you know where polish matters and where a quick version will answer the question.
• Comfort with production systems: load, rollouts, monitoring, and what to do when something breaks.
• Self-drive. Given a problem rather than a spec, you figure out what needs doing and follow through without daily direction.
• Range. You're happy moving between product, platform, and research tooling, and you get up to speed quickly on whatever the next problem needs.
• Startup instincts. You thrive in small, fast-moving teams and enjoy owning outcomes rather than tickets.

Bonus Points

• Experience with audio/video capture or real-time media.
• Mobile and/or desktop app development.
• Experience building developer-facing products such as APIs, SDKs, or documentation.
• Experience building tools for researchers or working closely with ML teams.

Pay and benefits

Compensation $250,000 - $300,000 base salary, plus meaningful equity. We think long-term ownership matters and structure equity accordingly.

Logistics

• Location: In-person in Seattle, five days a week - we believe in the compounding value of working shoulder-to-shoulder.
• Visa sponsorship: We sponsor visas (O-1, H-1B, green card, etc.) from day one.
• AI-native tooling: Do your best work with the best tools, including unlimited tokens.

Benefits & perks

• Health: We offer a variety of plans that meet your needs, including an HDHP with ~$2,000 in annual HSA contributions by the company (roughly 2x what most big tech companies put in).
• Wellness: $2,000/yr to spend on gym memberships, fitness equipment, training/coaching, classes, and more.
• Work setup: One-time $500 to spend on any tech or accessories that you might need to optimize your workflow.
• Time off: 15 days of PTO, 10 public holidays, and we close the office for a full week at year-end.
• Food: Lunch, drinks, and snacks on us every workday. We observe boba tea Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• Commuter benefits: Utilize pre-tax money (up to $340/month) for parking and transportation.
• 401(k): 4% match (100% of 1st 3% + 50% of next 2% contributions).