Director of Engineering

Regal•New York, NY

22d•$250,000 - $280,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Regal is seeking a Director of Engineering to lead two critical technical areas: the real-time systems essential for live calls and the applied AI research that shapes call quality and interaction. This role involves leading two teams: one focused on the scalable real-time call delivery infrastructure and another on proprietary model development for voice quality, utterance detection, voice activity detection, answering machine detection, and STT accuracy. This is a hands-on role for someone adept at the intersection of applied AI and real-time systems, collaborating closely with the Staff+ AI Engineering lead, with opportunities for broader engineering ownership as the company grows. Regal, founded in 2020, is an AI Agent Platform enabling companies to enhance customer communications with customizable, data-connected AI Agents. The company is based in Manhattan and fosters an in-person culture, backed by prominent investors and having achieved significant milestones such as partnering with Google and AAA, raising $82M, and completing over 500 million calls.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in software engineering, with significant experience in systems where latency and reliability are critical.
4+ years in engineering management, including experience managing mid to senior-level engineers.
An entrepreneurial mindset, with a willingness to help build the company's processes.
Comfort operating at the boundary of research and engineering, capable of translating model improvements into production systems and vice versa.
Strong communication skills, able to explain complex technical trade-offs to product stakeholders and collaborate effectively with researchers.
Excellent judgment in prioritization, with the ability to scope exploratory applied AI work against production impact.

Nice To Haves

Hands-on experience with STT/TTS pipelines, voice activity detection, or telephony infrastructure.
Prior work on latency-sensitive ML inference systems in production.
Experience with LLM orchestration or agent evaluation frameworks.
Familiarity with WebSockets, real-time audio, or WebRTC.
Prior startup experience at the Series B-D stage.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop engineers across two teams, set expectations, support career growth, and maintain a high hiring bar.
Own the technical roadmap for real-time call delivery and applied voice AI, in collaboration with Product, AI Engineering, and the broader engineering leadership team.
Drive the applied AI roadmap, focusing on improving AI agent communication (pace, timing, accuracy, warmth) and enhancing contact center AI capabilities.
Unblock teams by addressing process issues, pair debugging, or resolving cross-functional friction.
Collaborate closely with product and engineering leadership to drive innovation.
Maintain a strong, collaborative peer relationship with Regal's AI Engineering lead, managing the intersection of applied model work and research.
Represent engineering in cross-functional discussions regarding voice quality, latency, and AI agent reliability.
Actively participate in hiring, including sourcing, interviewing, and onboarding.