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Senior Research Engineer

AssemblyAIRemoteResearch
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Salary
$270K - $310K USD
Job type
Full-time
Work mode
Remote
Posted
1 Sept 2026
Status
Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

AssemblyAI is hiring a remote Senior Research Engineer to develop and improve the systems powering large-scale distributed training, data processing, and inference. This role suits an experienced machine learning engineer who wants to drive high-impact voice AI model development in a fast-paced environment.

Role Overview

As a Senior Research Engineer, the focus is on raising the experimental velocity of the team by making it faster to launch experiments, obtain reliable metrics, and determine subsequent steps. Working directly inside the pipeline, this role involves collaborating closely with researchers, infrastructure teams, and production engineering. The position requires moving fluidly between training models, running evaluations, analyzing data, and turning research prototypes into production-ready systems.

Key Responsibilities

Accelerate the team's experimental velocity by optimizing the speed and reliability of launching and measuring jobs.
Maintain and scale the JAX training framework for large-scale distributed training on TPUs.
Investigate data quality issues, build tooling to surface them, and secure measurable accuracy gains.
Analyze production model accuracy, construct evaluation harnesses, and determine key customer-facing improvements.
Refactor and modernize model architectures and infrastructure to convert research prototypes into production-ready systems.
Optimize production inference for speech language models using advanced techniques like quantization and speculative decoding.
Identify and resolve system performance bottlenecks spanning from low-level kernels such as XLA and Pallas to high-level system designs.
Collaborate across research, infrastructure, and production engineering to trace and resolve issues at their source.

Requirements

Expert-level proficiency with JAX, TPUs, and the associated ecosystem including Flax, Optax, and the XLA compilation pipeline.
Strong measurement discipline, defining success metrics upfront and maintaining skepticism toward unexplained results.
Broad appetite for exploring the entire pipeline, from performance optimization down to data problems and evaluation gaps.
Extensive experience optimizing production inference systems, specifically with LLMs or speech models.
Deep familiarity with ML infrastructure best practices, modern deep learning systems, and large-scale distributed training.
Practical knowledge of modern inference optimization strategies like continuous batching, sharding strategies, KV-cache management, and quantization.
Strong enthusiasm for refactoring code and improving system speed and efficiency.
Strong Python programming skills, alongside strong communication and collaborative abilities.

Nice to Have

C++ or Rust experience for kernel-level work.
Domain knowledge in Speech-to-Text, covering ASR architectures, audio processing, and streaming inference.

Skills and Tools

Python
Rust
C++
LLM
JAX
TPUs
Flax
Optax
XLA

Salary and Benefits

The annual salary range for this position is $270,000 to $310,000 in USD. Compensation is determined based on relevant experience, skill level, qualifications assessed during interviews, and internal equity, with adjustments possible for candidates outside the U.S. or with differing levels of experience.

About the Company

AssemblyAI creates best-in-class Voice AI models that power modern voice applications, processing over one million hours of audio daily and serving hundreds of millions of inference calls each month. Operating as a lean and capital-efficient team with thousands of customers, the company values outsized individual ownership, rapid execution, and a meritocratic culture free of heavy bureaucracy.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should visit the official AssemblyAI careers page to submit an application.

Skills and tech stack

PythonRustC++LLM

Questions candidates ask

What is the salary for the Senior Research Engineer role?

The salary range for this position is between $270,000 and $310,000 USD annually, depending on experience, qualifications, and location.

Is this position remote?

Yes, this is a remote role.

What core technical skills are required?

Candidates need expert-level proficiency with JAX and TPUs, strong Python skills, deep understanding of distributed training and inference optimization, and a strong background in ML infrastructure.

What department does this role sit in?

The role is embedded within the Research team.

What bonus skills are helpful for this role?

Experience with C++ or Rust for kernel-level work and domain knowledge in Speech-to-Text, ASR architectures, and streaming inference are considered pluses.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official AssemblyAI careers page.

Apply on company site