[Remote] Multimodal AI Model Optimization Research Engineer

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Tavus is building multimodal AI systems that enable natural human-AI interaction through language, audio, and video. The company is seeking an experienced Research Scientist/Engineer to optimize deep learning models for speed, efficiency, and production deployment, while measuring trade-offs across latency, cost, and quality and collaborating with research and engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Take cutting-edge research models and make them fast, efficient, and production-ready using sparsification, distillation, and quantization
• Own the optimization lifecycle for key models: define metrics, run experiments, and benchmark trade-offs across latency, cost, and quality
• Partner closely with researchers and engineers to turn new ideas into deployable systems

Skills

• Strong experience in deep learning using PyTorch
• Hands-on experience with model optimization and compression, including knowledge distillation, pruning/sparsification, quantization, and mixed precision
• Understanding of efficient architectures such as low-rank adapters
• Strong understanding of inference performance and GPU/accelerator fundamentals
• Strong Python coding skills and reliable research engineering practices
• Experience working with large models and datasets in cloud environments
• Ability to read ML papers, reproduce results, and adapt ideas
• Clear communication and collaboration skills
• Optimization of diffusion models, video/audio generative models, or large language models
• Experience with real-time or streaming systems (low-latency APIs, WebRTC, streaming TTS/video)
• Familiarity with TensorRT, ONNX Runtime, TVM, Triton, or XLA
• Experience writing custom Triton/CUDA kernels or low-level performance tuning
• Experience with experiment tracking, benchmarking, and profiling at scale
• Prior experience in research engineering or applied science roles
• This position is preferably hybrid in San Francisco, with relocation support offered

Benefits

• Flexible work schedules
• Unlimited PTO
• Competitive healthcare
• Gear stipends
• A collaborative environment focused on learning and impact
• Relocation support offered
• Remote candidates are also considered

Company Overview

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