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Principal ML Research Engineer

Lanesurf | San Francisco, California, United States | 3w ago
$120,000 – $225,000/yr| full-time | on-site | lead | 3+ years
skills: python, pytorch, llm, speech models, transcriber, transcription accuracy, interruption models, voice agents, machine learning, mlops

Build AI that talks, negotiates rates, and enables autonomous movement of trucks from pickup to delivery

Demo of AI booking a shipment in 10 minutes by speaking to 96 trucking companies simultaneously

The problem

If Walmart needs to move a truck of avocados from California to Chicago, today they must:

  • Speak with 50+ trucking companies
  • Check weight and temperature requirements
  • Negotiate price and availability
  • Do it one call at a time

This process takes hours and thousands of phone calls every day across the industry.

What we’re building

We’re building AI agents that do this work automatically.

  • Calls and emails dozens of trucking companies at once
  • Checks requirements (weight, temperature, lanes)
  • Negotiates prices in parallel
  • Books a truck in minutes, not hours

Proof it works

👉 In this demo, our AI spoke to 96 trucking companies simultaneously and booked a shipment in under 10 minutes - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7394069447327555584

Why this is exciting

  • You’ll work on AI that handles real-world transactions through phone calls
  • Real-world, high-stakes work enabling autonomous logistics - think moving a truck from Chicago to Texas, fully coordinated by AI
  • Small team, high ownership, fast iteration
  • Hard problems that don’t exist in benchmarks

What we’ll work on

Train & Tune Models

Fine-tune transcribers and speech models for real-time voice agents operating on live phone calls.

  • Enable real time transcriber fine-tuning based on caller context
  • Improve transcription accuracy for domain-specific language under noisy conditions
  • Fine-tune interruption models on domain-specific conversations
  • Post-Train speech models for intonations, pacing and naturalness and avoiding robotic cadence

LLM optimization

  • Structuring modules, and policies that compose cleanly
  • Optimizing LLM outputs for brevity, correctness, and timing
  • Reducing drift across long, multi-turn conversations
  • Evaluating changes against real call outcomes, not just text metrics

Evaluation & iteration

You’ll help define how we measure quality across:

  • Transcription accuracy where it actually matters
  • Voice naturalness as judged by listeners
  • Conversation efficiency and completion

You can be a great fit, if:

  • ML Engineer with Real-World Experience – You’ve trained and shipped models in production. Bonus if you’ve worked with LLMs or audio models.
  • Fluent in Modern ML Stack – You know your way around Python, PyTorch, and today’s ML tools - from training pipelines to evaluation benchmarks.
  • Execution-Oriented – You move fast, take ownership, and focus on solving real problems over perfect ones.
  • Startup-Ready – You’re adaptable, resilient, and energized by ambiguity and fast-changing priorities.
  • Clear Communicator & Team Player – You collaborate well across functions and push decisions forward.

Details

  • Cash + Equity
  • Location: San Francisco, CA, US

Benefits

cash · equity
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