Hark

Audio Quality and Data Engineer

San Jose · Full-time

Sponsorship not specified$250k-$300kDetected 55 days ago

PythonC++RESTMachine LearningLLMsAgentic AIStatisticsElectrical EngineeringSignal ProcessingCommunication

About the role

Voice is the primary interface between Hark's AI and the people who use it, so audio quality is a product requirement, not an afterthought.
Your work will directly shape how customers experience our consumer AI devices and voice AI agents, and the quality bar you define will become the bar the rest of the company ships against.

Lead audio data collection programs: define recording protocols, acoustic conditions, device configurations, and speaker/language diversity targets
manage capture sessions and partner vendors
deliver labeled, structured datasets for both evaluation and model training.
Investigate audio quality regressions and field issues - reproduce in the lab, isolate root cause across hardware, DSP, network, and model layers, and partner with hardware, firmware, ML, and platform teams to drive fixes.
Lead audio data collection programs: define recording protocols, acoustic conditions, device configurations, and speaker/language diversity targets; manage capture sessions and partner vendors; deliver labeled, structured datasets for both evaluation and model training.
In this role, you will design test methodologies and metrics, build the automated test infrastructure that runs them, and lead the audio data collection efforts that feed both evaluation and model training.
Hark is an artificial intelligence company building advanced, personalized intelligence.
We're pairing that intelligence with next-generation hardware to create a universal interface between humans and machines.

5+ years of experience in audio quality, audio test, or audio DSP engineering, ideally on consumer audio devices, voice communication systems, or voice AI products.
Working knowledge of telecommunication and audio quality standards (ITU-T P-series and G-series, 3GPP, TIA), and the objective metrics built on them (POLQA, PESQ, STOI, DNSMOS, etc.).
Hands-on experience with professional audio test equipments: Audio Precision, ACQUA, HATS, B&K / GRAS measurement microphones, artificial ears, R&S or equivalent RF/network test gear.

Experience evaluating LLM-based voice agents or full-duplex conversational systems (turn-taking, interruption handling, end-pointing, latency budgets).
Familiarity with ASR evaluation methodology - WER, robustness testing, regression criteria, and dataset construction for noisy/far-field conditions.
Contributions to industry standards bodies (ITU-T, 3GPP, IEEE) or published audio quality research.
Experience setting up an audio test lab from scratch - equipment selection, acoustic treatment, calibration procedures.
Familiarity with embedded audio platforms, Bluetooth audio stacks, or wearable/hearable form factors.
C/C++ proficiency for working close to the DSP or firmware layer.
Patents or publications in audio signal processing, echo cancellation, or speech enhancement.
The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $250,000 - $300,000 annually.
The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role.
This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.

One that is proactive, multimodal, and capable of interacting with the world through speech, text, vision, and persistent memory.
Design, build, and maintain an automated audio test system: instrumented test fixtures, playback/capture orchestration, signal generation, scoring pipelines, and CI integration for regression coverage.

This listing is sourced directly from Hark's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.