Senior Software Engineer (Backend) at Tavus (S21)
$160K - $250K  •  
Building the human layer of AI
San Francisco, CA, US / Remote (US)
Full-time
Will sponsor
3+ years
About Tavus

At Tavus, we're building the human layer of AI. Our mission is to make human-AI interaction as natural as face-to-face interaction, enabling the human touch where it has been previously unscalable. We achieve this through pioneering research in multi-modal AI models for human perception and understanding, combined with state-of-the-art human avatar rendering and communication models. Our models power everything from text-to-video AI avatars to real-time conversational video experiences across industries like healthcare, recruiting, sales, education, and more. By enabling AI to see, hear, and communicate with human-like authenticity, we're creating the foundation for the next generation of AI employees, assistants, and companions.

We're a Series A company backed by top investors, including Sequoia, Y Combinator, and Scale VC. Join us in driving the future of human-AI interaction.

About the role

About Us

Tavus is a research lab pioneering human computing. We’re building AI Humans: a new interface that closes the gap between people and machines, free from the friction of today’s systems. Our real-time human simulation models let machines see, hear, respond, and even look real—enabling meaningful, face-to-face conversations. AI Humans combine the emotional intelligence of humans with the reach and reliability of machines, making them capable, trusted agents available 24/7, in every language, on our terms.

Imagine a therapist anyone can afford. A personal trainer that adapts to your schedule. A fleet of medical assistants that can give every patient the attention they need. With Tavus, individuals, enterprises, and developers can all build AI Humans to connect, understand, and act with empathy at scale.

We’re a Series A company backed by world-class investors including Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, and Scale Venture Partners.

Be part of shaping a future where humans and machines truly understand each other.

The Role

We're hiring a Senior Software Engineer (Backend) to be a technical driver across teams. You're the glue that makes discrete teams feel like one continuous team. You'll tackle ambiguous problems across our range of backend and partner closely with the frontend and conversational video interface team.

Here are a few examples of features this role has shipped:

  • API Platform - Our customer facing APIs that lets customers build conversational experiences in their own product
  • Billing System - Collecting money is important, doing it reliably is even more important.
  • Replica Training Pipeline - Partnered across Engineering and Research to build out reliable pipelines for creating new customer Replicas.

Your Mission

  • Work across the backend to ship rock solid features that both self-serve and enterprise customers will use (ex: Updates to our Billing system, new account management systems, endpoint perf optimization)
  • Work with the Conversational Video Interface and the Frontend Platform team to get SoTA models into users' hands
  • Drive architectural decisions across the stack

Requirements

  • You're a scrappy backend generalist who can hop between Python and Typescript fluently
  • You thrive in an ambiguous and fast changing space. The state of the art changes on a dime and you react with it
  • You bring a senior mindset: you set direction, own decisions, and gets things over the finish line
  • You have incredibly communication skills and can communicate complex technical ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical team members

Nice-to-Haves

  • Experience with React and fullstack web development
  • Experience with video streaming or WebRTC
  • Experience working with LLMs
  • Broad knowledge of generative AI models

Benefits & Culture

When you join Tavus, you’re joining a diverse and supportive team. Our work is driven by our people, and our success is shared by all. This position has a flexible work schedule, unlimited PTO, competitive healthcare, and gear stipends, as well as plenty of fun. At the end of the day, we want Tavus to be a place for you to learn, directly drive impact, and work with a team you love.

To learn more about our team culture and benefits, check out our hiring page.

Tavus is growing fast, and we’d like you to grow with us. If you’re excited to get your hands dirty and help make machines more human, drop your resume and we’ll be in touch.

We are not looking for cultural fits, we are looking for culture creators. Diversity is what drives our success – it’s at the core of how we hire, communicate, and work. We are inclusive to all and combine our diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and perspectives to build the best experiences for our clients.

Technology

Python for our ML stack React/NodeJS for our customer platform

We're exploring new boundaries in voice synthesis, deep-tech and audio engineering.

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