Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Product)

• Own end-to-end delivery of AI product features
  Lead the design and implementation of complex features—from initial concept through production—ensuring high quality and strong user impact.
• Drive system design for AI-backed experiences
  Architect systems that orchestrate LLMs, retrieval, and structured data, making thoughtful tradeoffs between flexibility, reliability, and performance.
• Elevate product quality through iteration and evaluation
  Establish and improve feedback loops (evaluation frameworks, user signals, experimentation) to systematically improve AI output quality.
• Lead technical direction within a product area
  Break down ambiguous problems, define approaches, and guide execution across multiple engineers.
• Mentor and raise the engineering bar
  Provide guidance on code quality, system design, and product thinking; help less experienced engineers operate more effectively in an AI-driven environment.
• Accelerate team velocity through AI-assisted development
  Model effective use of modern AI tools to improve iteration speed, code quality, and overall team productivity.

• Has 5+ years of experience building and scaling product-facing systems, with a track record of owning complex features or product areas end-to-end
• Writes clean, maintainable code (Python preferred) and makes strong architecture and design decisions across a modern web stack
• Brings a high bar for product quality, not just system correctness — consistently asks whether what’s being built actually serves users well
• Has experience working with AI/LLM-powered systems, or can ramp quickly and contribute meaningfully to shaping their behavior in production
• Drives projects from idea → production with strong ownership, and helps others do the same through mentorship and technical leadership
• Thrives in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and can set technical direction, not just execute within it

• Experience building or experimenting with LLM-powered features (prompting, evaluation, RAG, etc.)
• Experience designing systems that balance latency, cost, and quality
• Exposure to user feedback loops, experimentation, or evaluation frameworks

About Otter.ai 

We are in the business of shaping the future of work. Our mission is to make conversations more valuable.

With over 1B meetings transcribed, Otter.ai is the world’s leading tool for meeting transcription, summarization, and collaboration. Using artificial intelligence, Otter generates real-time automated meeting notes, summaries, and other insights from in-person and virtual meetings – turning meetings into accessible, collaborative, and actionable data that can be shared across teams and organizations. The company is backed by early investors in Google, DeepMind, Zoom, and Tesla.

Otter.ai is an equal opportunity employer. We proudly celebrate diversity and are committed to building an inclusive and accessible workplace.  We provide reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants throughout the hiring process.  

Accessibility & Accommodations

Otter.ai is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our hiring process.  If you need assistance or an accommodation during any stage of the recruitment process, please contact hr@otter.ai at least 3 business days before your interview.

*Otter.ai does not accept unsolicited resumes from 3rd party recruitment agencies without a written agreement in place for permanent placements. Any resume or other candidate information submitted outside of established candidate submission guidelines (including through our website or via email to any Otter.ai employee) and without a written agreement otherwise will be deemed to be our sole property, and no fee will be paid should we hire the candidate.

Salary range

Salary Range: $185,000 to $230,000 USD per year.

This salary range represents the low and high end of the estimated salary range for this position. The actual base salary offered for the role is dependent on several factors. Our base salary is just one component of a comprehensive total rewards package.

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