Staff Engineer, Platform & Systems

Retell AI•Redwood City, CA

4d•$240 - $300•Onsite

About The Position

Retell AI is using the first principles to reimagine the call center with cutting edge voice AI. Since launching 18 months ago, thousands of companies now utilize Retell’s AI voice agents to handle sales, support, and logistics calls that once required large teams of human agents. Backed by Y Combinator, Alt Capital, and other leading investors, we have scaled to $36M ARR with a team of 20 people, up from $5M at the start of 2025. In 2026, We are expanding our vision to build a CX platform of the AI era where the entire contact center is reimagined as a team of AI employees. We are moving beyond mechanical automation that relies on human finetuning to instead transform core functions into intelligent, opinionated AI roles. Frontline agents, QA analysts, and managers now operate as distinct digital workers that serve as the new interface for customer experience. They execute, monitor, and improve continuously to create a system where software behaves like an organization. We’re scaling fast, and we’re looking for bold, ambitious people to help us build the gold standard for voice automation. If you want to work on deeply technical challenges, move fast, and make an outsized impact at one of the fastest-growing Voice AI startups in the world, you’ll love it here. Let’s build the future together. We’re a top 50 AI app in a16z list: https://tinyurl.com/5853dt2x #4 on Brex's Fast-Growing Software Vendors of 2025: https://www.brex.com/journal/brex-benchmark-december-2025 We're also one of the top ranking startups on: https://leanaileaderboard.com/ THE ROLE We’re looking for a Principal/Staff Engineer to help own the technical direction of our core platform. This is a staff-level IC role for someone who thrives in ambiguity, moves fast, and raises the bar for everyone around them. You’ll work across systems, infrastructure, and product surfaces — partnering closely with engineering, product, and leadership to scale what’s already working and build what’s next. This is not a “ticket taker” role. You’ll define problems, design solutions, and ship.

Requirements

You have 9+ years of experience building and operating production systems.
You’ve operated at Staff or Principal level (or equivalent scope), even if the title wasn’t official.
You’re strong in systems design and can reason clearly about tradeoffs.
You move fast but care deeply about correctness, reliability, and maintainability.
You’re comfortable owning ambiguous problems and defining the path forward.
You’ve built or scaled platforms used by real customers at meaningful volume.
You enjoy being hands-on — writing code, reviewing designs, and unblocking teams.

Nice To Haves

distributed systems
Voice AI
real-time systems
APIs at scale
infra/platform work
developer-facing products

Responsibilities

Own the design and evolution of core platform and systems architecture.
Lead complex technical initiatives end-to-end, from concept to production.
Make high-leverage technical decisions that balance speed, reliability, and scale.
Raise the technical bar through design reviews, mentoring, and hands-on leadership.
Partner closely with product to translate business needs into robust technical solutions.
Identify and resolve performance, scalability, and reliability bottlenecks.
Help define engineering best practices as we scale the team and platform.