Media Software Engineer, Speech (All Levels)

About Cantina:

Cantina Labs is a social AI company, developing a suite of advanced real-time models that push the boundaries of expression, personality, and realism. We bring characters to life, transforming how people tell stories, connect, and create. We build and power ecosystems. Cantina, our flagship social AI platform, is just the beginning.

If you're excited about the potential AI has to shape human creativity and social interactions, join us in building the future!

About the Role:

The media team at Cantina is creating one of the most advanced platforms for real-time and streaming media in the world. We're passionate about building high-performance, high-quality software and services, with a mandate that covers everything from globally distributed infrastructure to optimized device-level audio and video processing frameworks. We are looking for engineers who are excited about working with an exceptional team on challenging problems.

We're looking for an enthusiastic Software Engineer to help us provide a compelling experience for users who want to chat with friends and AI-powered bots. In this role, you will extend and improve the audio and video infrastructure that is at the heart of enabling real-time interactions in the Cantina app.

What You’ll Do:

• Enhance and extend the real-time Cantina media platform.

• Enable new ways for users to interact with their friends and AI bots through voice and video by implementing new features and capabilities.

• Improve and build on the custom, WebRTC-based frameworks we use to provide media services for iOS, Android, and web clients.

• Collect and analyze metrics relating to system performance and user behavior.

• Participate in detailed and constructive design and code reviews.

• Collaborate with other members of the team to deliver new features and enhancements on a regular basis.

• Work with application development teams to define APIs they can use to integrate with the media stack.

What You’ll Bring: We welcome applicants across a wide range of experience levels, from new graduates to senior engineers. Responsibilities and leveling will be tailored to match the candidate’s background.

These are the minimum qualifications:

• BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field; or equivalent experience.

• Excellent communications skills.

• Experience with C or C++.

• Strong computer science fundamentals, including familiarity with data structures and concurrent / multithreaded programming.

• Exposure to system programming concepts, including network protocols; memory management; and distributed systems fundamentals.

• Object-oriented programming and design skills.

• Interest in solving challenging, subtle engineering problems.

These are the preferred qualifications:

• Previous experience with WebRTC, streaming protocols, or other media-related technologies.

• Familiarity with audio or video processing techniques and algorithms.

• Experience creating backend server infrastructure.

• Experience developing software for iOS and Android.

• Familiarity with building services using Node.js.

• Familiarity with artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques, particularly in relation to speech recognition and synthesis.

Location:

We have offices located in Sunnyvale, CA and Brooklyn, NY. While we offer fully remote and hybrid employment opportunities, our Media Engineering team strongly desires candidates to be available (or willing to relocate) to work in the Bay Area. For reference, 95% of the Media Engineering team works from the Bay Area.

Compensation:

The anticipated annual base salary range for this role is between $120,000-$180,000. When determining compensation, a number of factors will be considered, including skills, experience, job scope, location, and competitive compensation market data.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary and generous company equity

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance – 99.99% of premiums covered by Cantina

• 42 days of paid time off, including:

  • 15 PTO days

  • 10 sick days

  • 15 company holidays

  • 2 floating holidays

• Generous parental leave & fertility support

• 401(k) retirement savings plan

• Lifestyle spending account – $500/month to use however you’d like

• Complimentary lunch and snacks for in-office employees

• One Medical membership, and more!