Posted 2 months ago
Staff/Principal Engineer
@ hireVouch
Vancouver, British Columbia
Overview
Inworld is hiring a Staff/Principal backend engineer to own core systems for an LLM routing layer, model service APIs and real-time speech products. The role is a pure individual contributor position reporting to the VP of Engineering, requiring 8+ years of cloud service experience and startup background.
Responsibilities:
- Own core backend systems for an LLM routing layer across 200+ models
- Build and scale API-based TTS, STT, LLM and RAG model services
- Design real-time, low-latency speech-to-speech and Realtime API systems
- Collaborate with PMs, engineers and ML teams to ship quickly
- Influence technical standards and architectural decisions
Requirements summary:
- 8+ years of backend software engineering experience
- Built and operated cloud services at hundreds+ QPS
- Startup or growth-stage company experience, not exclusively big tech
- Hands-on experience with Redis/Memcached and Flink or Beam
- Technical STEM degree
Tools & skills
Source and dates
Source type not verified · cats
- Employer posting date
- 2026-09-03
- First seen by our source
- 2026-10-10
- Source record updated
- 2026-11-05
These dates describe the source record, not a live verification that the employer is still hiring. Check the original posting.
Job details
| Seniority | Senior |
| Department | Software development |
| Experience | 8+ years |
| Work setting | Office |
| Position | Mostly sitting |
| Physical demands | physical low · computer high |
| Languages | English |
| Education | Bachelor’s degree (required) |
| Fields of study | Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, Engineering |
Summary and details written by AI from the posting; the employer’s posting is the authority.
hireVouch
Saved company profile
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Full company description
Our Edge Hiring and retaining skilled talent is paramount for your company’s success. Finding the right people – who have the right skills and right personality fit – can be incredibly challenging in today’s job market. Here at hireVouch we can help you acquire the highest calibre candidates through the relationships we have formed over more than a decade. Our approach is an ethical one. Rather than use the often-employed aggressive methods typical of the recruitment industry, our focus is placed largely on referral-based networking. Getting it right really matters to us. Let us leverage our network of talent that has already been vouched for by leading professionals in the industry to help your business grow. Services Offered Contingency and Retained Search Here at hireVouch we focus on sourcing best-in-class candidates for rewarding positions in Canada and the US. We have extensive expertise in Contingency, Retained and Temporary placement, primarily within the IT sector. On-Site Search Assistance We have a trusted network of HR and search professionals who can provide on-site search services to help fulfill immediate needs as well as help train internal staff in finding the highest quality talent Company Marketing Strategy We know how competitive the job market can truly be and how important it is to have a strategy to attract talent. At hireVouch we have extensive expertise in helping companies better market themselves. We can provide the tools and knowledge that will assist you in making your business a highly attractive place to work. Developing a company marketing strategy is key to hiring the talent you need to grow.
- LinkedIn followers
- 68,412
- People associated on LinkedIn
- 7
- Reported office locations
- 215 Spadina Avenue, 4th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5T 2C7, CA
- Other recorded names
- hireVouch
- Profile identifies a recruitment agency
- Yes
Our Edge Hiring and retaining skilled talent is paramount for your company’s success. Finding the right people – who have the right skills and right personality fit – can be incredibly challenging in today’s job market. Here at hireVouch we can help you acquire the highest calibre candidates through the relationships we have formed over more than a decade. Our approach is an ethical one. Rather than use the…
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Industry | Staffing and Recruiting |
| Company size | 2-10 employees |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario |
| Organization type | Privately Held |
| Year founded | 2016 |
| Open jobs on Jobsy | 175 |
| View page |
About the Role
Inworld is looking for a Staff/Principal-level backend engineer with 8+ years of experience building and operating cloud-based services at scale.The ideal candidate is a strong IC with high technical autonomy, a track record of shipping zero-to-one platform products end-to-end, and the ability to adapt across tools and programming languages.
Startup or growth-stage experience is strongly preferred. AI product experience, founder experience, or experience at high-caliber AI/infrastructure companies such as Databricks is a plus.
What You'll Do
- Own core backend systems for an intelligent routing layer across 200+ LLMs with:
- Multi-provider failover
- Cost/latency-based routing
- Real-time observability at massive scale
- Build and scale API-based model services across TTS, STT, LLM, and Knowledge/RAG.
- Build infrastructure powering consumer-facing AI applications serving hundreds of millions of end users.
- Design and implement real-time, low-latency systems for speech-to-speech and Realtime API products.
- Collaborate closely with PMs, engineers, and ML teams to identify product needs and ship quickly.
- Drive system improvements and influence technical standards, dependencies, and architectural decisions.
- Work on ambitious new products and system-wide infrastructure projects.
Key Context
- Pure IC role — no management responsibilities, but significant ownership expected.
- Flat team structure reporting to the VP of Engineering.
- Immediate engineering team of approximately 7–8 people.
- AI tools and agents are embraced throughout the development and interview process.
- Startup experience is strongly preferred; candidates coming exclusively from large tech companies are not a fit.
- Adaptability across languages and technologies is valued more than deep specialization in a single language.
Tech Stack
Go, Python, C++, Rust, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, Memcached, Apache Flink, Apache Beam, ClickHouse, OpenTelemetry, GCP, AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, gRPC.Candidate Requirements
Dealbreakers- Built and operated cloud-based services at high scale — hundreds+ QPS.
- Hands-on experience with caching technologies such as Redis/Memcached, pub/sub or queues, and data pipelines such as Flink or Beam.
- 8+ years of backend software engineering experience.
- At least one startup or growth-stage company in their background; not exclusively big tech.
- Has shipped zero-to-one platform or product builds end-to-end.
- Technical degree in CS, physics, math, engineering, or a similar STEM field.
- Strong cloud infrastructure experience across GCP, AWS, or Azure.
- Experience operating relational databases such as PostgreSQL or MySQL at scale.
- Experience building AI products or real-time consumer-facing systems.
- Experience building API gateways, routing/proxy layers, or multi-provider orchestration systems.
- AI product, founder, or high-caliber AI/infrastructure startup experience.
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