Applied Researcher, Audio Understanding

ABOUT CARTESIA Our mission is to architect AI that learns from and interacts with the world like humans do. We're pioneering the model architectures that will make this possible. Our founding team met as PhDs at the Stanford AI Lab, where we invented State Space Models or SSMs, a new primitive for training efficient, large-scale foundation models. Our team combines deep expertise in model innovation and systems engineering paired with a design-minded product engineering team to build and ship cutting edge models and experiences. We're funded by leading investors at Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with Factory, Conviction, A Star, General Catalyst, SV Angel, Databricks and others. We're fortunate to have the support of many amazing advisors, and 90+ angels across many industries, including the world's foremost experts in AI. ABOUT THE ROLE As a Senior Applied Researcher in Audio Understanding, you will be responsible for tackling the most challenging problems in audio perception. Your work will go beyond traditional speech recognition to encompass the full spectrum of audio perception, from identifying speakers and interpreting emotion to understanding complex acoustic environments. You will lead high-impact projects that are critical to our mission of building truly aware AI. YOUR IMPACT - Architect and develop novel, large-scale models for complex audio understanding tasks, including multi-speaker ASR, diarization, and non-speech audio classification and deploy them to production at scale. - Pioneer research in areas like self-supervised learning for audio, few-shot learning, and robust audio-visual perception. - Set new standards for how we evaluate and benchmark our audio understanding systems. - Build large scale pre-training and fine-tuning datasets for audio understanding capabilities. WHAT YOU BRING - Deep expertise in ASR, audio understanding, language modeling, or generative modeling more broadly. - Experience with large-scale training, GPU/TPU acceleration, and model optimization. - Strong applied mindset—able to balance scientific novelty with product impact. MORE DETAILS 🏢 In-office policy: We’re an in-person team based out of offices in 🇺🇸 San Francisco, 🇬🇧 London and 🇮🇳 Bangalore. We love being in the office, hanging out together, and learning from each other every day. 🌎 Visa sponsorship: We provide visa sponsorship support and assess each circumstance on a case-by-case basis. However, visa sponsorship is dependent on many factors, including the role you are applying for, and the location you are going to be based, and so we can't always guarantee success. Your Recruiter will work with you to understand your visa sponsorship needs from the first call. 🚢 We ship fast. All of our work is novel and cutting edge, and execution speed is paramount. We have a high bar, and we don’t sacrifice quality or design along the way. 🤝 We support each other. We have an open & inclusive culture that’s focused on giving everyone the resources they need to succeed. OUR BENEFITS (US EMPLOYEES ONLY) 💰 Compensation. Competitive base salary alongside attractive equity package. 🩺 Health Insurance. Fully covered medical insurance along with dental and vision for you and your family. 🏦 401(k) 🚆 Commuter Allowance. A monthly stipend to help you get to and from the office. 🏖️ Flexible PTO. Take as much time as you need to recharge your batteries. 🍲 Meals & Snacks. Lunch, dinner and plenty of snacks, provided daily. 🦖 Your own personal Yoshi.