Engineering Lead

Careers at Convai
We are excited that you are interested in exploring possible career options with Convai. If creating intelligent NPCs and their applications excite you, we want to talk to you. Here’s a brief on how we believe the world will change in the coming years and how we will build a team of people who are committed to making that happen.
Mission
The kind of Conversational AI we saw in Artificial Intelligence movies or read in science fiction novels is now a reality. Convai is making them available to developers, specifically virtual world developers, who would take our APIs and plugins to power Characters in virtual worlds. These characters are effectively human-like robots in virtual world environments. A future where interacting with AI characters as seamlessly as with any real human is very close and the possibilities that arise with that are fascinating. Convai is committed to enabling this tech to develop games with characters that you can engage in various forms and immerse yourself in that narrative experience, bots that you can have as companions just like a real friend. Not only does Convai enable futuristic sci-fi level games but the potential for learning and training is immense. Traditional education can be transformed with interactive characters that are effectively personal tutors and can teach subjects in a fun and interactive way. Whether it is for K12 learning or for professional training in any industry such as healthcare or manufacturing, Conversational AI characters in virtual worlds can benefit them all. Convai is committed to making this future happen. Does this future excite you?
Core Values
Passion - Loving your work is an absolute must. Each of us in the company is excited about what we do and thereby we think about it all the time. We want you to be the same. That way you won't be “working” and the work will be something you love to do.
Developer obsession - We are creating products for virtual world developers. They are our primary users and customers and thereby will be our best advocates if we serve them well. We would be known as the earth’s most developer-centric company. Making life a breeze for the developer when it comes to using our products and services is part of our core value.
World-class - We are working on an area that will shape the future of how applications, experiences, and games are made. We are building a team of world-class researchers, engineers, and designers who are either already best in class at their craft or will stop at nothing to improve themselves and be the world's best. This is deeply tied to their work ethic and their desire to constantly seek feedback and improve.
Leaders - Leadership abilities arise when you have deep expertise in an area and are willing to take responsibility and ownership of that area. We want each person on the team to be able to have such ability and thereby can work autonomously towards their objectives and do their life’s best work so far.
Culture - Not only is it enough to be the absolute best at your craft, but it is also equally important to be someone people like to work with. We work with people that we like and trust but also admire their abilities. While being friendly, helpful, and respectful is key, it also comes down to taking responsibility for your work area, being clear and focused, communicating clearly, and having intellectual honesty.
Innovation-driven - We strive to be extremely innovative in what we do. If we are not innovating, we are dying as a startup. Every person on the team would require a level of innovation mindset and you’re constantly seeking ways to innovate either on the product or on the business side.

About the Backend Engineer Lead Role

• As a key member of our engineering team, you'll be responsible for constructing robust, scalable backend systems that enable Embodied AI conversational characters in 3D worlds.

Responsibilities

• Develop high-traffic, distributed systems and robust APIs.
• Implement ML inference and training architectures.
• Collaborate on feature brainstorming, design, and roadmap execution.
• Ensure cross-team coordination for continuous service availability.
• Optimize backend processes for speed and scalability.
• Mentor junior developers and contribute to team growth.

Requirements

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or related field.
• 8+ years of backend development experience.
• Experience in Python or similar languages like Golang, Rust, C++
• Strong understanding of distributed systems and API development.
• Expertise with one of the cloud providers like Google Cloud Platform, Azure, Amazon Web Services
• Experience building real-time streaming pipelines or low-latency APIs for interactive systems (e.g., audio, video, or animation).
• Ability to architect scalable systems handling millions of requests per day.
• Track record of designing fault-tolerant, observable, and performant distributed systems.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform, Helm) and observability tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry).
• Strong familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation in Kubernetes environments.
• Willingness to roll up sleeves when needed, while setting standards for code quality, reliability, and performance.

Preferred qualifications

• Comfortable working closely with product, design, and frontend/Unity/Unreal teams to align technical implementation with user needs.
• Ability to lead projects end-to-end and mentor mid-level and junior engineers.
• Ability to break down complex product goals into scalable backend solutions.
• Familiarity with WebRTC, gRPC, WebSockets, or other streaming protocols 
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Strong communication and leadership abilities.

Not the Right Fit If You…

• Prefer to only coordinate and “liaise”
• Need a large team to execute
• Are looking for a structured corporate environment
• Avoid ambiguity and solo ownership

What We Offer

• Opportunity to work on impactful and innovative projects with a direct influence on the user experience.
• A collaborative and supportive work environment.
• Competitive salary and benefits package.

Bottom line: If you’re open to taking yourself to the next level and doing your best work that you’d be proud of, Convai would be an ideal place for you.