Audio Research

Back to rolesAudio ResearchLocationSan Francisco, CAEmployment typeFull-timeLocation typeOn-siteDepartmentResearchCompensation$150K–$450K + equityAbout LightberryLightberry builds the software layer for expressive, interactive robots. We combine voice AI, perception, and behavior systems so robots can understand people and respond naturally.We are a small, hands-on team based in San Francisco, working across software, hardware, design, and research to turn new capabilities into robots people can interact with today.We care about thoughtful craft, fast iteration, and shipping real systems into the world.Robots with SoulsYep, you read that right.Robots are here, but they ship with no software. They’re all mute, deaf, and blind out of the box. The only way to get the robot to do anything is to write code. This is insane.We want robots to behave like in the movies: proactive, caring, aware.The roleSpeech is our robots’ first language. Understanding it in a noisy room, speaking with warmth and timing, knowing the difference between a pause and an ending — that’s your research.Your models won’t live in a demo. They’ll live in a robot’s head, streaming in real time.What you’ll doResearch speech and audio models: understanding, synthesis, and everything between.Make them robust to the real world: crowds, echo, distance, interruptions.Squeeze them into real time on on-robot compute.Work with our audio engineers so hardware and models improve each other.What’s neededWe don’t care about degrees or citation counts. Show us what you’ve built and what you’ve figured out. We do need:Speech. You’ve done serious work in speech or audio ML: recognition, synthesis, enhancement, or representation learning.Engineering. Your research runs outside a notebook: you write real code and ship it.Real time. Streaming, low-latency inference is home turf, not an afterthought.Fun. You have a folder of audio experiments that never needed to exist.Bonus pointsHearables. You’ve worked on voice products, hearables, or conversational systems.Signal. Classic DSP intuition to go with the models.One last thing…Don’t apply if…You can’t stand chaosYou’d work remotely every day if you couldYou’re not a people-personYou’re pessimistic about tech, AI, and the futureApply if…You want to do your life’s workYou care about developing and expressing your craftYou love intense, fast-paced environmentsYou like getting your hands dirty, no work is beneath youLife’s short, why work on B2B AI SAAS infra slop when you could work on speaking robots?Apply nowName *Email *LinkedIn profile *Are you legally authorized to work in the United States? *YesNoWill you require visa sponsorship now or in the future? *YesNoGitHub, portfolio, publications, or hardware projectsWhat have you made that you’re proud of? Why? *Submit application