Software Engineer, Data Infrastructure & Acquisition - reputed company Town, South Africa

About the Company

Our mission is to ensure that reading is never a barrier to learning. We are a globally recognized leader in text-to-speech technology, trusted by over 50 million users to transform written content into high-quality audio. This empowers individuals to read faster, retain more, and access information effortlessly. Our platform was recently honored as the Chrome Extension of the Year and received the 2025 Design Award for Inclusivity, reflecting our commitment to excellence and accessibility.

Today, our distributed team of nearly 200 professionals operates across the globe, bringing together expertise from top-tier institutions and companies. We comprise frontend and backend engineers, AI research scientists, and data specialists who collaborate to push the boundaries of what is possible in audio AI. Our culture emphasizes innovation, autonomy, and a shared dedication to making a meaningful impact.

Overview

We are seeking a skilled Software Engineer to join our Data team within the AI group. This role is central to our data collection operations, which support the training of cutting-edge AI models. You will contribute to building high-quality datasets at petabyte scale, optimizing for both cost and efficiency through seamless integration of infrastructure, engineering, and research. We are looking for a candidate who thrives in a fast-paced, distributed environment and is passionate about solving complex data challenges.

What You Will Do

• Identify and integrate new sources of audio data into our ingestion pipeline, demonstrating resourcefulness and initiative.
• Operate and maintain the cloud infrastructure for our ingestion pipeline, currently built on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and managed with Terraform.
• Collaborate closely with our AI Scientists to advance the frontier of cost, throughput, and data quality. Deliver richer datasets at larger scale and lower cost to power our models.
• Work with the AI Team and Leadership to shape the dataset roadmap, ensuring alignment with the company's strategic goals for both consumer and enterprise products.
• Monitor and optimize data workflows for reliability and performance, troubleshooting issues as they arise.
• Contribute to the design and implementation of scalable data processing systems that handle millions of audio files efficiently.

An Ideal Candidate Should Have

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• At least 5 years of professional experience in software development, with a focus on data engineering or infrastructure.
• Strong proficiency in bash and Python scripting within Linux environments.
• Deep understanding of networking concepts and Infrastructure-as-Code principles, with hands-on experience using at least one major cloud provider (we use GCP).
• Experience with web crawlers and large-scale data processing workflows is highly desirable.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent tasks and adapt to evolving priorities in a dynamic startup environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across distributed teams.
• A proactive, problem-solving mindset with a focus on delivering results.