Software Engineer, Voice Interaction

Sunday
Redwood City, US

Who this role is best for

Best suited to mid-level engineers with voice pipeline experience working in robotics or edge devices, particularly those comfortable with C++ and real-world hardware constraints.

Best fit for

  • Engineers who have shipped end-to-end voice pipelines for hardware products.
    — “at least one end-to-end pipeline shipped to users or deployed on hardware
  • Candidates adept at balancing classical and ML-driven approaches for decision-making.
    — “Strong understanding of both classical decision-making approaches and modern ML-driven reasoning
  • Developers experienced in optimizing for compute-constrained embedded systems.
    — “Experience working on compute-constrained platforms where software meets hardware

Things to consider

  • Role requires handling real-world audio challenges like ambient noise and network issues.
    — “real-world conditions including ambient noise, partial utterances, and unreliable network connectivity
  • Position involves both local and cloud-based ML model integration.
    — “Integrating machine learning models across local and cloud compute

How to stand out

  • Demonstrate specific examples of tuning audio processing for domestic environments.
    — “tuning onboard audio processing (beamforming, noise suppression, echo cancellation)
  • Highlight experience defining guardrails for voice input/output systems.
    — “Define and enforce guardrails around voice input and output
  • Showcase projects where you evaluated STT/TTS tradeoffs on resource-constrained hardware.
    — “Evaluate and integrate STT/TTS engines and models, making informed tradeoffs
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Mid

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Develop and maintain full voice pipeline
  • Integrate voice subsystem with high-level robot behaviors
  • Build reliable software for robots
Typical background
2+ years experience in voice-driven systemsExperience in robotics or similar compute-constrained platforms

Skills & requirements

Required

Voice-driven SystemsSpeech-to-textText-to-speechReal-time Audio ProcessingC++Asynchronous ProgrammingStreaming/buffering PatternsCloud API ServicesClassical Decision-making ApproachesMl-driven Reasoning

Preferred

Founder Or Early Hire ExperienceShipping Responsive AI SystemsMl-driven Control For Embodied AIMultimodal ModelsAudio InterpretationRobotics

Stack & domain

C++Asynchronous ProgrammingStreaming/buffering PatternsIntegration With Cloud Api ServicesSpeech-to-textText-to-speechReal-time Audio ProcessingState MachinesBehavior TreesLlmsVlmsMultimodal ModelsAudio InterpretationRoboticsProblem-solvingTeamworkCommunicationAIMachine Learning

About the role

Original posting from Sunday via Ashby

Join Us in Building the Future of Home Robotics

At Sunday, we're developing personal robots to reclaim the hours lost to repetitive tasks. We're focused on an ambitious goal to make generalized robots broadly accessible, enabling households to take back quality time.

We have spent the last 18 months building a talented team, securing capital, and validating our technology. We are now seeking passionate individuals to join us in the next phase of our growth. If you are ready to apply your skills to the forefront of robotics innovation, we’d love to hear from you.

What To Expect

As a Software Engineer, Voice Interaction, you will own the full voice pipeline that connects our users with Memo's core robotic and AI systems. Integrating machine learning models across local and cloud compute, you will transform raw audio signals into actionable instructions in a domestic environment. As part of the broader team, you will also contribute to the behavior stack that drives Memo's high-level decision making and task execution.

What You’ll Do

  • Develop and maintain the full voice pipeline from microphone array input through wake word detection, speech-to-text, natural language understanding, and text-to-speech output
  • Configure and integrate microphone array for domestic use, tuning onboard audio processing (beamforming, noise suppression, echo cancellation) and supplementing with additional processing where needed
  • Integrate the voice subsystem with high level robot behaviors, enabling the robot to receive, interpret, and act intelligently on voice commands
  • Design and optimize TTS output to deliver natural, responsive spoken interactions in real time on embedded hardware
  • Define and enforce guardrails around voice input and output, including content filtering, prompt boundary enforcement, output length limits, and auditing to ensure the system operates within intended use
  • Evaluate and integrate STT/TTS engines and models, making informed tradeoffs between accuracy, latency, and resource consumption
  • Build reliable, well-tested software that runs on our robot, Memo, under real-world conditions including ambient noise, partial utterances, and unreliable network connectivity
  • Deliver a successful voice interaction experience to our Beta users

What You’ll Bring

  • 2+ years experience developing voice-driven systems including speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and real-time audio processing, with at least one end-to-end pipeline shipped to users or deployed on hardware
  • Strong understanding of both classical decision-making approaches (state machines, behavior trees, planning) and modern ML-driven reasoning (LLMs, VLMs)
  • Experience working on compute-constrained platforms where software meets hardware (robotics, edge devices, consumer electronics, or similar) including debugging problems that cut across both
  • Proficiency in C++, with experience in asynchronous programming, streaming/buffering patterns, and integration with cloud API services

Nice To Have

  • Experience as a founding or early hire; able to define a release roadmap where no blueprint exists
  • Experience shipping responsive AI systems in robotics, video games, or embodied AI
  • Strong understanding of ML-driven control for embodied AI (end-to-end learning, reinforcement learning, VLAs)
  • Practical experience (or high curiosity) in interfacing with multimodal models
  • Publications in multimodal models, audio interpretation, or robotics

At Sunday Robotics, we’re building technology shaped by real people — curious, creative, and diverse. We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

Even if you don’t meet every single requirement, we encourage you to apply. Studies show that women and underrepresented groups often hold back unless they meet 100% of the criteria — we don’t want that to be the reason we miss out on great talent.

Source: Sunday careers (Ashby)

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