[All remote jobs](https://jobicy.com/jobs.md)[![Cresta logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2022/08/4d686e40b22cf2510b627c59afe5fd95.jpg)](https://jobicy.com/company/cresta.md)[Cresta](https://jobicy.com/company/cresta.md) # Lead Engineer – AI Agent Voice Experience AI Summary Cresta is hiring a Lead Engineer to build and improve production AI voice-agent systems for contact centers. The role spans speech recognition, turn detection, text-to-speech, speech-to-speech models, agentic workflows, and LLM-based reasoning. The engineer will establish evaluation frameworks, diagnose quality and reliability failures, and optimize low-latency streaming inference at scale. This position partners closely with research, product, design, platform, and backend teams while mentoring engineers and shaping the voice AI roadmap. It is a senior technical leadership role focused on translating advanced ML capabilities into reliable real-time customer experiences.[Apply for this job](#job-application)[View company](https://jobicy.com/company/cresta.md)ShareRemote from[USA](https://jobicy.com/job-region/usa.md)SalaryUSD 205k–270k / yrDepartment[Data Science & Analytics](https://jobicy.com/categories/data-science.md)EmploymentFull TimeExperienceSeniorPublished3 Nov 2026Apply before3 Dec 2026Listing views34Application actions2Application toolkit ## Make your next move. Prepare your resume, explore your fit, and draft a cover letter for this opportunity. Opportunity details ## About this role. Cresta unlocks the true potential of the customer experience, turning every conversation into a competitive advantage. Cresta’s unified AI platform combines conversational AI agents, real-time human agent augmentation, and comprehensive conversation intelligence to drive revenue and efficiency gains across every channel. The world’s leading companies, including United Airlines, Cox Communications, and Marriott, use Cresta to power world-class customer experiences every day. Born from the Stanford AI Lab, Cresta has raised more than $270 million from the world’s leading investors, including a16z, Greylock, and Sequoia. Cresta’s leadership includes some of the leading minds in AI today. Our CEO, [Ping Wu](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pingwu/), founded and led Google’s Contact Center AI and Vertex AI platforms before joining Cresta to build the future of AI-driven customer experiences. Over the next few years, AI is going to redefine how people all over the world interact with businesses every day. Come build that future at Cresta. ### About the role We are looking for a Lead Engineer, AI Agent Voice Experience to help build the next generation of AI-powered voice systems for the contact center. In this role, you will work at the intersection of speech, language, and real-time production systems, improving how AI listens, understands, reasons, empathizes, and responds in live customer conversations. You will develop and improve machine learning systems that power voice experiences end to end, including automatic speech recognition, turn detection, agentic workflows, voice evaluation, text to speech, speech-to-speech models, and production optimization. You will partner closely with applied researchers, product managers, designers, forward deployed engineers, and platform engineers to ensure model and system improvements translate into measurable customer and business impact. This role is ideal for someone who is excited by both model quality and production reality: designing rigorous evaluation frameworks, analyzing failure modes, improving latency and robustness, elevating caller interaction experience, and shipping systems that perform reliably at scale in real-time voice environments. ### Responsibilities * Design, train, evaluate, and deploy machine learning systems that power real-time voice experiences, including speech to text turn detection, text to speech, speech to speech, reasoning and structured insight generation. * Improve the quality of voice AI systems through error analysis, data curation, metric design, benchmarking, and iterative model improvement, with a strong focus on real-world performance. * Build evaluation frameworks for complex voice and agentic systems, measuring metrics such as accuracy, robustness, latency, faithfulness, naturalness, professionalism, task completion, and cost. * Diagnose and mitigate failure modes across the voice stack, including transcription errors, hallucinations, tool misuse, prompt brittleness, context drift, and multi-step reasoning breakdowns. * Design, implement, and optimize low-latency ML systems that deliver delightful caller experience (e.g., backchanneling, focusing on foreground speaker, interpreting caller’s emotions, responding with empathy). * Partner with platform and backend engineers to productionize real-time inference, streaming pipelines, quality monitoring, and continuous model iteration. * Collaborate cross-functionally with product, design, frontend, and backend teams to integrate voice intelligence seamlessly into Cresta’s platform. * Mentor engineers, contribute to technical strategy, and help shape the roadmap for Cresta’s voice AI systems. ### Qualifications we value * Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Machine Learning, AI, or a related field; Master’s or Ph.D. preferred. * 5+ years of experience building, evaluating, and deploying machine learning systems in production. * Demonstrated experience in leading fast-moving, highly technical teams. Strong communication skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional decisions and raise the engineering bar. * Distinctive technical vision for the future of voice AI. * Strong background in one or more of the following: speech recognition, speech processing, NLP, generative AI, or voice AI. * Deep experience with model evaluation, benchmarking, error analysis, and quality improvement for production ML systems. * Solid understanding of transformer-based models, embeddings, retrieval systems, and large-scale training or inference workflows. * Experience designing and deploying real-time ML systems with strong requirements around latency, scalability, and reliability. * Experience building data pipelines and tooling for experimentation, measurement, and large-scale quality analysis. * Ability to work across research and engineering boundaries and translate promising ideas into production-grade systems. ### Nice to have * Hands-on experience with ASR quality metrics such as WER and task-level evaluation methodologies. * Experience with RAG systems, agentic workflows, multi-step reasoning systems, or LLM-as-a-judge evaluation methods. * Familiarity with streaming inference, real-time voice pipelines, or media systems. * Experience working closely with infrastructure or platform teams on production ML deployment, observability, and reliability. * Experience in contact center AI, conversational intelligence, or enterprise voice products. ### Perks & Benefits We offer a comprehensive and people-first benefits package to support you at work and in life: * Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with plans to fit you and your family * Flexible PTO * Paid parental leave * Retirement savings support * Remote work setup budget or work-from-home stipend * Monthly wellness and communication allowance * In-office meal or lunch benefits for onsite employees ### Compensation Cresta’s approach to compensation is simple: recognize impact, reward excellence, and invest in our people. We offer competitive, location-based pay that reflects the market and what each individual brings to the table. The posted base salary range represents what we expect to pay for this role in a given location. Final offers are shaped by factors like experience, skills, education, and geography. In addition to base pay, total compensation includes equity and a comprehensive benefits package for you and your family. Salary Range: $205,000–$270,000 + Offers Equity Our use of AI in recruiting: We may use AI tools in our recruiting process, which require human review and oversight. If you have questions about our use of AI or wish to opt out, please contact [recruiting@cresta.ai](mailto:recruiting@cresta.ai) (if you are opting out, please use the subject ‘Opt-Out’ in your email). Recording & AI transcription: We do not authorize candidates to record or use AI transcription of any interview by phone, notetaker app, AI glasses, or other device. Candidates may request an exception or accommodation for review during the interview process as needed. Recruiting impersonation scams: We have noticed a rise in recruiting impersonations across the industry, where scammers attempt to access candidates’ personal and financial information through fake interviews and offers. All Cresta recruiting email communications will always come from the @cresta.ai domain. Any outreach claiming to be from Cresta via other sources should be ignored. Show more [Apply now >](https://jobicy.com/jobs/158822-lead-engineer-ai-agent-voice-experience.md) * ![Upload CV](data:image/svg+xml;base64,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) ### Upload your resume now To unlock remote work opportunities and be discovered by global employers. This job listing has been manually reviewed by the Jobicy Trust & Safety Team for compliance with our posting guidelines, including verification of the company's legitimacy, accuracy of job details, clarity of remote work policy, and absence of misleading or fraudulent content. ## Role DNA A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description. ### Job Complexity 5/5EasyHard ### Pace & Pressure 5/5RelaxedFast-paced ### Autonomy Level 5/5GuidedFull ownership ### Communication Load 5/5IndependentCollaborative AI insightThis is a highly complex production ML leadership role requiring deep expertise across speech AI, generative models, evaluation, distributed real-time inference, and system reliability. Success depends on resolving ambiguous model-quality tradeoffs while leading cross-functional technical decisions. ## Salary analysis Estimated compensation compared with the broader US market for similar roles. Estimated job median (per year)Market rate$237,500US market range (per year)$210k–$290k0$319k AI insightThe yearly pay period is inferred from the job context; it was not explicitly stated by the employer. The employer discloses a base salary range of $205,000–$270,000 USD. The annual cadence is inferred because no cadence is stated, but the amount and full-time US lead-engineering context strongly support yearly pay. The estimated US market range for a lead engineer specializing in production voice AI and machine learning is $210,000–$290,000 USD per year; equity and benefits may be additional. ## Core skills Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity. [Machine Learning](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Machine%20Learning.md)[Speech Recognition](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Speech%20Recognition.md)[Natural Language Processing](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Natural%20Language%20Processing.md)[Generative AI](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Generative%20AI.md)[Voice AI](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Voice%20AI.md)[Automatic Speech Recognition](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Automatic%20Speech%20Recognition.md)[Text-to-Speech](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Text-to-Speech.md)[Transformer Models](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Transformer%20Models.md)[Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Retrieval-Augmented%20Generation.md)[Model Evaluation](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Model%20Evaluation.md)[Error Analysis](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Error%20Analysis.md)[Real-Time Inference](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Real-Time%20Inference.md)[Streaming Systems](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Streaming%20Systems.md)[MLOps](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=MLOps.md)[Data Pipelines](https://jobicy.com/jobs?search_keywords=Data%20Pipelines.md) Sample interview questionsHow would you design an evaluation framework for a real-time voice agent?I would define a layered evaluation system covering component metrics such as word error rate and turn-detection accuracy, plus end-to-end measures including task completion, latency, faithfulness, naturalness, safety, and cost. I would combine offline benchmark sets, adversarial scenarios, production monitoring, and human evaluation, then connect the metrics to prioritized customer outcomes. Describe how you would investigate degraded task completion in a voice AI system. I would segment failures by call type, customer cohort, model version, latency, and tool path, then inspect traces across ASR, dialogue state, retrieval, reasoning, and TTS. After identifying the dominant failure mode, I would validate a targeted change through offline replay and controlled production experimentation before expanding the rollout. What are the main tradeoffs when optimizing a real-time speech-to-speech pipeline? The central tradeoff is response quality versus end-to-end latency and cost. I would budget latency by pipeline stage, use streaming and incremental inference where possible, optimize model routing and caching, and ensure that quality safeguards remain in place for interruption handling, grounding, and natural conversational timing. How would you reduce hallucinations and tool misuse in an agentic voice workflow? I would constrain actions through typed tool schemas, explicit authorization rules, retrieval grounding, and state-aware prompts. I would also build scenario-based evaluations for unsupported requests, ambiguous inputs, and multi-step tasks, instrument tool calls in production, and use the resulting traces to improve policies and training data. How do you lead technical work across applied research and platform engineering teams? I establish shared success metrics, clear interface contracts, and a staged delivery plan that distinguishes research validation from production readiness. I communicate tradeoffs early, use data to resolve disagreements, and mentor engineers so that ownership and operational quality are distributed across the team. Next step ## Apply now. Follow the employer’s application method and review Jobicy’s safety guidance before sharing personal information. Keep exploring ## Related remote jobs. * ![Welo Global logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2026/06/83c40f94-221.webp) Welo Global Nov 3 New ### [AI Trainers Network – Welsh](https://jobicy.com/jobs/158809-ai-trainers-network-welsh.md) Welo Data, part of Welocalize, is a global AI data company with 500,000+ contributors delivering high-quality, ethical data to train the world’s most advanced AI systems. We’re building smarter, more… * ![Welo Global logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2026/06/83c40f94-221.webp) Welo Global Nov 3 New ### [AI Trainers Network – Vietnamese](https://jobicy.com/jobs/158808-ai-trainers-network-vietnamese.md) Welo Data, part of Welocalize, is a global AI data company with 500,000+ contributors delivering high-quality, ethical data to train the world’s most advanced AI systems. We’re building smarter, more… * ![Welo Global logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2026/06/83c40f94-221.webp) Welo Global Nov 3 New ### [AI Trainers Network – Uzbek](https://jobicy.com/jobs/158807-ai-trainers-network-uzbek.md) Welo Data, part of Welocalize, is a global AI data company with 500,000+ contributors delivering high-quality, ethical data to train the world’s most advanced AI systems. We’re building smarter, more… * ![Welo Global logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2026/06/83c40f94-221.webp) Welo Global Nov 3 New ### [AI Trainers Network – Ukrainian](https://jobicy.com/jobs/158806-ai-trainers-network-ukrainian.md) Welo Data, part of Welocalize, is a global AI data company with 500,000+ contributors delivering high-quality, ethical data to train the world’s most advanced AI systems. We’re building smarter, more… * ![Welo Global logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2026/06/83c40f94-221.webp) Welo Global Nov 3 New ### [AI Trainers Network – Twi](https://jobicy.com/jobs/158805-ai-trainers-network-twi.md) Welo Data, part of Welocalize, is a global AI data company with 500,000+ contributors delivering high-quality, ethical data to train the world’s most advanced AI systems. We’re building smarter, more… * ![Welo Global logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2026/06/83c40f94-221.webp) Welo Global Nov 3 New ### [AI Trainers Network – Turkish](https://jobicy.com/jobs/158804-ai-trainers-network-turkish.md) Welo Data, part of Welocalize, is a global AI data company with 500,000+ contributors delivering high-quality, ethical data to train the world’s most advanced AI systems. We’re building smarter, more… * ![Welo Global logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2026/06/83c40f94-221.webp) Welo Global Nov 3 New ### [AI Trainers Network – Thai](https://jobicy.com/jobs/158803-ai-trainers-network-thai.md) Welo Data, part of Welocalize, is a global AI data company with 500,000+ contributors delivering high-quality, ethical data to train the world’s most advanced AI systems. We’re building smarter, more… * ![Welo Global logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2026/06/83c40f94-221.webp) Welo Global Nov 3 New ### [AI Trainers Network – Tagalog](https://jobicy.com/jobs/158802-ai-trainers-network-tagalog.md) Welo Data, part of Welocalize, is a global AI data company with 500,000+ contributors delivering high-quality, ethical data to train the world’s most advanced AI systems. We’re building smarter, more… * ![Welo Global logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2026/06/83c40f94-221.webp) Welo Global Nov 3 New ### [AI Trainers Network – Swedish](https://jobicy.com/jobs/158801-ai-trainers-network-swedish.md) Welo Data, part of Welocalize, is a global AI data company with 500,000+ contributors delivering high-quality, ethical data to train the world’s most advanced AI systems. We’re building smarter, more… * ![Welo Global logo](https://jobicy.com/data/server-nyc0409/galaxy/mercury/2026/06/83c40f94-221.webp) Welo Global Nov 3 New ### [AI Trainers Network – Swahili](https://jobicy.com/jobs/158800-ai-trainers-network-swahili.md) Welo Data, part of Welocalize, is a global AI data company with 500,000+ contributors delivering high-quality, ethical data to train the world’s most advanced AI systems. We’re building smarter, more… [Browse all jobs](https://jobicy.com/jobs.md)