# Staff Platform Engineer, Voice AI

**Company:** [Together AI](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/together-ai)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** DevOps / SRE
**Salary:** $220k – $280k/yr
**Experience:** 8+ years
**Skills:** TypeScript, Python, Kubernetes, Websocket, Webrtc, Rust, React, Next.js, Real-Time Streaming, Distributed Systems
**Posted:** 2026-05-19

> Staff Platform Engineer owning architecture, reliability, and autoscaling for Together AI's real-time Voice AI API layer. Requires 8+ years building large-scale distributed streaming systems, deep Kubernetes and TypeScript/Python expertise.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Own the architecture and reliability of Together's real-time API layer — set the technical direction for WebSocket and HTTP streaming APIs powering STT and TTS at scale; establish the reliability bar (connection lifecycle, backpressure, graceful degradation, reconnection) that production voice agents depend on.
- Lead autoscaling architecture for latency-sensitive voice workloads — design and ship orchestration systems that handle bursty, real-time traffic across tens of thousands of GPUs; solve problems at the intersection of concurrent connection limits, streaming state, and hard latency ceilings.
- Define the voice API feature surface — make architectural calls on word-level alignment, real-time speaker diarization, audio format support (g711/mulaw, PCM, WebRTC), pronunciation controls, and multi-context WebSocket.
- Build the observability platform for voice infrastructure — design latency breakdown pipelines, audio quality signal collection, and customer-facing dashboards for production-quality operation.
- Own the multi-provider abstraction layer — architect the normalization layer across model partners (Cartesia, Deepgram, Rime, and others) that delivers consistent, provider-agnostic API behavior.
- Drive the interface between API and ML serving — partner with ML engineering leadership to define the contract between the API layer and the model serving stack, impacting end-to-end latency and reliability SLAs.
- Raise the bar for developer experience across the platform — lead API design reviews, shape documentation strategy, define integration patterns and cookbooks.
- Architect for the product surface that doesn't exist yet — build systems that become the foundation for multiple new voice products.

## Requirements
- 8+ years of experience building large-scale, real-time distributed systems with clear ownership of systems carrying production traffic at meaningful scale.
- Deep expertise in real-time streaming infrastructure — WebSocket server architecture, SSE, bidirectional streaming, connection multiplexing, stateful protocol design.
- Expert-level TypeScript and Python, with strong proficiency in systems-level thinking; Rust experience is a meaningful advantage.
- Senior distributed systems judgment — load balancing, autoscaling, rate limiting, and traffic shaping for latency-sensitive workloads.
- Deep Kubernetes expertise — custom autoscalers, resource management, and health checking for stateful, streaming services.
- Strong technical leadership — set direction, influence across teams without authority, bring clarity to ambiguous problems.
- Sharp product intuition for developer platforms — opinions about API ergonomics, thinking from the developer's perspective, shipped tooling developers praised.
- Proven ability to operate with autonomy on high-ambiguity, high-stakes problems.
- Experience with audio and media protocols (WebRTC, g711, PCM encoding) is strongly preferred.
- Familiarity with ML model serving infrastructure and inference engines is a significant advantage.
- Full-stack experience (React, Next.js) for developer-facing tooling contributions is a plus.
- Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field — or equivalent depth demonstrated through work.

## Nice-to-Haves
- Rust experience
- Experience with audio and media protocols (WebRTC, g711, PCM encoding)
- Familiarity with ML model serving infrastructure
- Full-stack experience (React, Next.js)

## Compensation & Benefits
- Competitive compensation, startup equity, health insurance and other competitive benefits.
- US base salary range: $220,000 - $280,000 + equity + benefits.

## Similar roles

- [Member of Technical Staff](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/0e5c80e5-c463-4ff3-a963-00cc16bb6638) - Perplexity - San Francisco, CA - $220k – $405k/yr
- [Staff Infrastructure Engineer](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/3fefd940-a4c3-4192-bf7b-602e79d38977) - Replit - Foster City, CA - $220k – $325k/yr
- [Staff Software Engineer, Managed Orchestration (Managed Kubernetes)](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/bf980fef-24fd-4d61-adde-1d362b118697) - Crusoe - San Francisco, CA - $220k – $250k/yr
- [Staff Platform Engineer](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/532eef15-ca9f-4c90-a2f5-484a5647b734) - TruckSmarter - San Francisco, CA - $220k – $280k/yr
- [Staff / Senior Software Engineer, Infrastructure](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/fad58100-dd7a-4d93-9c0c-90ec64ad62e0) - Suno - Cambridge, MA - $220k – $280k/yr

**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/53a52344-78f2-4a99-a477-14da2dd4efd5
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/53a52344-78f2-4a99-a477-14da2dd4efd5