• SampleRNN: An Unconditional End-to-End Neural Audio Generation Model.
• Char2Wav: End-to-end Speech Synthesis.
• ObamaNet: Photo-realistic lip-sync from text.
• MelGAN: Generative Adversarial Networks for Conditional Waveform Synthesis.
• Chunked Autoregressive GAN for Conditional Waveform Synthesis
• Wav2CLIP: Learning Robust Audio Representations From CLIP

Responsibilities

• Using deep learning (including but not limited to NLP, speech processing, computer vision, etc.) to solve problems for media creation and editing.
• Creating realistic voice doubles using only a few minutes of audio.
• Creating tools to synthesize photo-realistic videos that match our Overdub (personalized speech synthesis) feature.
• Designing and developing new algorithms for media synthesis, anomaly detection, speech recognition, speech enhancement, filler word detection, audio and video tagging etc.
• Coming up with new research directions to improve our product

Requirements

• Proven experience in designing and implementing deep learning algorithms.
• PhD or Master’s degree specialized in Deep Learning or equivalent experience.
• Track record of developing new ideas in machine learning, as demonstrated by one or more first author publications or projects.
• Good programming skills and experience with deep learning frameworks.
• Ability to generate more ideas than you can implement.
• Implementing a given idea is easy and efficient. Once the experiment set up is established, you’re able to implement many ideas per day, evaluate them, and organize your time to be productive and efficient.
• You wish you had more GPUs to run all the experiments that you wanted!
• You know Pytorch/Tensorflow inside-out
• We do not require domain-specific knowledge in computer vision or speech-processing

• Lead author of an accepted publication in one of the top conferences: ICLR, ICML, NeurIPS, ICASSP, ICCV, CVPR, InterSpeech, etc.
• Played a key role in shipping a feature in production which uses deep learning as a key component.

Our vision is to build the next-generation platform for fast and easy creation of audio and video content. In November 2022, we took a huge leap forward by launching Storyboard, the video editing foundation that we’re excited to build atop AI capabilities like Overdub, Studio Sound, and other generative AI capabilities in the near future. We're used by some of the world's top podcasters and influencers as well as businesses such as BBC, ESPN, Hubspot, Shopify and Washington Post for communicating via video. We've raised $100M from some of the world's best investors like Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI Startup fund, Redpoint Ventures and Spark Capital.

We’re looking for a strategic thinker who has a strong product and technical acumen to lead our Applied AI Research team and shape the product and business in the coming years via the cutting edge advancements in AI. You’ll be managing a talented team of AI Researchers specialized in generative models and deep learning and will report directly to the VP of Engineering.

Some of our research publications:

• SampleRNN: An Unconditional End-to-End Neural Audio Generation Model.
• Char2Wav: End-to-end Speech Synthesis.
• ObamaNet: Photo-realistic lip-sync from text.
• MelGAN: Generative Adversarial Networks for Conditional Waveform Synthesis.
• Chunked Autoregressive GAN for Conditional Waveform Synthesis
• Wav2CLIP: Learning Robust Audio Representations From CLIP

Job Responsibilities

The Head of Applied AI will be responsible for managing and leading our Applied AI Research team in developing and implementing cutting-edge AI technologies for the Descript product. The responsibilities include:

• Leading research projects and ensuring their timely completion
• Collaborating with other teams to integrate AI technologies into real-world products
• Mentoring and managing a team of research scientists and engineers
• Developing and implementing research strategies
• Staying up-to-date with the latest developments in AI technology and incorporating them into our research
• Representing the company in conferences and events

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have:

• PhD or Master’s degree specialized in Deep Learning or equivalent experience.
• 3+ years in managing AI teams and 5+ years of experience with building deep learning models
• A track record of leading and shipping research projects in production
• Experience in managing and mentoring research scientists
• Strong knowledge of deep learning (and ideally generative models)
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

As a member of the Technical Support team you are the key to assuring that multimedia content creators and influencers around the world get the most out of their Descript experience. Serving as a member of our small but growing team requires a dynamic skill set and we’re looking for someone who wants to share their passion for technology with a diverse and committed fanbase.

The Opportunity

You’ll develop a rich understanding of the Descript application and platform and use your knowledge to provide direct support for our users and internal teams. You’ll troubleshoot and report emerging issues and coordinate timely resolutions with our QA and Engineering teams. You’ll also help develop internal knowledge guides to assure that Support teams can quickly triage and unblock users with known solutions.

Role Requirements

• 2+ years experience providing user-facing technical support on a rapidly evolving software product.
• Highly organized with strong time management and prioritization abilities.
• Intermediate to advanced experience using multimedia editing software (Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Premiere, Audition, Pro Tools, or similar).
• Extensive experience supporting both Windows, macOS, and browser-based environments.
• Experience troubleshooting computer hardware and software systems (including multimedia interfaces).
• Experience managing a ticket queue with an escalation pipeline to assure support SLA response times are maintained.
• Experience writing detailed technical documentation (bug reports, troubleshooting steps, processes, workflows).
• Must have an appropriate remote work environment (including stable, high-speed broadband internet connection) with the ability to initiate and receive screen share meetings with end-users and team members.

Preferred Experience

• Experience with web app infrastructure (HTML, CSS, databases, API’s, XML, JSON)
• Proficiency in video creation and transcoding concepts. (FFMPEG, file creation, delivery/distribution)
• Familiarity with podcasting workflows.
• Network troubleshooting/CompTIA/Helpdesk experience a plus.

About You

• You are a highly motivated, self-directing individual who is always looking to improve yourself and your environment.
• You naturally internalize software technology and data pipelines as a foundation for your work.
• You are a natural-born problem solver, skillfully evaluating and applying information gathered through observation and reasoning.
• You are able to communicate technical information simply and effectively to users of every skill level.
• You thrive in ambiguity and lean upon your extensive knowledge and experience in order to find solutions to difficult problems.
• You believe that every support interaction is an opportunity to brighten a customer's day.
• You are a dedicated champion of the needs of your customers.
• You thrive in collaborative environments, and are empowered to work cross-functionally to achieve a goal.

The base salary range for this role is. $62,000 - $95,000. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, location, and may vary from the amount above.

• Develop a roadmap in partnership with the technical lead and ensure execution is predictable, reliable and sustainable
• Recruit, grow and coach engineers ensuring they receive regular feedback and opportunities to make rapid progress on their personal and professional goals
• Shape the broader engineering organization’s operating model by spearheading technical practices, recruiting, onboarding strategy, planning and prioritization process and more.
• Help scale our culture as we grow

• 4+ years of management experience managing teams of Software Engineers and track record of shipping high quality products
• Creates team environments that are collaborative, creative, empowering, supportive, and challenging —ones where engineers do their best work.
• Experience building web apps (ideally with React/TS) and/or native desktop apps
• Effectively collaborates with a diverse set of functions technical and non-technical
• Clear and succinct communicator (written and verbal)
• Direct and emphatic while giving and receiving feedback
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field, or equivalent training, fellowship, or work experience.

• Managed engineering teams at a startup before where the rate of change is extremely high
  

The base salary range for this role is $190,000- $240,000/year. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, location, and may vary from the amount above.

As a member of our quality engineering team, you’ll be doing manual testing on areas including audio and video editing, recording, media production, and web publishing, to continually expand test coverage on a fast-growing product. You’ll have a voice in our quality strategy, and contribute to tools, processes, and documentation to help us continually learn and improve. You will work closely with Engineering teams every day to improve confidence and insights in our release process. This is an opportunity to have a big impact for the end users of a creative product, while working with a truly creative team.

What You'll Do

• Create, maintain, and execute test cases to prevent regressions and identify new bugs in advance of new product releases
• Triage, review, and schedule bugs and quality issues, gathering insights and providing information to Engineering teams on overall quality and areas of improvement
• Lead release testing process on a rotating basis, ensuring critical issues are resolved, communicating across teams, and approving releases to Production
• Ensure performance and compatibility requirements are met across a range of operating systems, hardware devices, and third-party applications
• Work with external QA teams to provide test cases and documentation for ongoing regression testing
• Investigate vaguely reported customer problems and translate them into bugs that can be reliably reproduced by Descript's engineering team

What You Bring

• 5+ years experience testing web and desktop applications, ideally consumer-facing
• 2+ years experience as a test lead on a team, product area, or feature
• Full understanding of the product development lifecycle and experience writing test plans and manually testing software
• Experience testing on both Mac & Windows
• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written)

Nice to Have

• Experience testing AI models, products, or services
• Experience in video editing tools
• Personal or professional experience working with creative tools, especially for audio and video production

The base salary range for this role is $138,000-$170,000. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, and location, and they may vary from the amount above.

Descript is looking for a methodical QA professional with a keen eye for details and experience in testing AI models to help ensure the overall quality and reliability of our AI-powered products that revolutionizes the way content creators work with audio & video. This is an opportunity to work directly in the fast-moving landscape of AI technology and integrate best-in-class quality practices into our product development framework.

What You'll Do

• Collaborate closely with the AI research team to understand project requirements, develop test plans, and conduct thorough testing of AI algorithms and features to identify issues and areas of improvements
• Establish baselines, benchmarks and quality rating systems that consistently represent model quality
• Develop and scale our standards for quantitative and qualitative evaluation of AI models
• Create and maintain clear documentation, including test plans, test cases, and bug reports
• Leverage internal and external resources for gathering preference test data
• Audit and communicate with third party service providers to determine if they meet our quality requirements
• Continuously enhance testing processes, methodologies, and tools to improve efficiency
• Mentor QA Engineers on other teams to test AI models and coordinate with cross-functional teams, including software engineers and product managers, to ensure seamless integration and a smooth user experience

What You Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent relevant experience
• 5+ years QA experience
• 2+ years experience leading testing or evaluation of AI models
• 2+ years experience as a test lead on a team, product area, or feature
• Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders

Nice to Have

• Experience working with AI research teams
• Experience writing SQL queries
• Experience using Python for scripting

The base salary range for this role is $138,000-$170,000. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, and location, and they may vary from the amount above.

What You’ll Do

• Design, implement, and maintain our AI infrastructure supporting our machine learning life cycle, including data ingestion, training, evaluation, and deployment.
• Collaborate with Machine Learning Engineers and Data Scientists to understand their infrastructure needs and ensure our AI systems are robust, scalable, and efficient.
• Work on optimizing and scaling of our models and algorithms for efficient inference.
• Deploy, monitor, and manage AI models in production.
• Implement rigorous security protocols to protect sensitive data and prevent abuse.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive product requirements and improve our AI platform.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and technologies, and be ready to present potential use cases to the team.

What You Bring

• Experience in deploying and managing AI models in production.
• Knowledge of Python, C/C++, CUDA, and experience profiling GPU performance and distributed training runs.
• Experience with machine learning frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow or similar.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) and container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Strong problem-solving abilities and excellent communication skills.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with generative AI models.
• Familiarity with audio and video processing.
• Knowledge of DevOps best practices.

At our current size and stage, we embrace a flat organizational structure and value the expertise and contributions of every team member. As such, we have a unified job title for our engineering roles where everyone, including those with Staff-level scope, is considered a Software Engineer. While titles may not change, we are actively seeking senior and above Software Engineers to join our team.

The base salary range for this role is $160,000- $215,000/year. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, location, and may vary from the amount above.

Tech Stack

• Descript is built with Typescript, React/Redux, and Node.js, and takes advantage of WebAssembly, WebCodecs, WebGL, and WebAudio for real-time rendering and compositing.

What You’ll Do

• Collaborate closely with designers, product managers, and other engineers to deliver a high quality user experience
• Develop and refine front-end architecture and best practices to support a fast-moving product engineering team
• Work alongside AI researchers to build innovative user experiences around the state-of-the-art advancements in AI
• Iterate on our script-and-scene media editing paradigm to keep users in flow state during the editing process.
• Push the web browser to its limit, writing high-performance code rivaling native applications

What You Bring

• 7+ years of professional software development experience
• Industry experience in a frontend software engineering role
• Proficiency in one or more programming languages and frontend frameworks, especially Typescript/Javascript/React
• Pride in delivering high-quality, maintainable, observable, debuggable features
• Desire to take ownership, and resourcefulness to find answers and simplify problems
• Self aware of strengths and seeking to constantly learn and improve
• Strong written and verbal communication

Nice to Have

• Experience building creative tools
• Experience building and optimizing single-page web applications (SPAs)

At our current size and stage, we embrace a flat organizational structure and value the expertise and contributions of every team member. As such, we have a unified job title for our engineering roles where everyone, including those with Staff-level scope, is considered a Software Engineer. While titles may not change, we are actively seeking senior and above Software Engineers to join our team.

The base salary range for this role is $160,000-$230,000/year. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, location, and may vary from the amount above.

This is the first design manager we’ve hired at Descript. You’ll report to our VP of Product, and manage our product design and user research team. We are looking for a design leader who gets their energy from managing and growing a team, and loves helping teams solve complex systems design problems.

Our design team currently consists of four product designers and one user researcher. Each of them are talented individuals with unique skills, and they deserve a design leader who will help and inspire them do the best work of their lives, and grow in their careers while doing that. We are looking to roughly double the size of that team in the coming year, and you will be responsible for leading that hiring and building a strong design team culture.

Our product is an intricate web of interconnected features, which means design at Descript is mostly about systems design. Designers who do well here are ones are the ones who love mind melting puzzles, where you have to figure out how to keep all the interconnected parts straight in your head, and build something that has structural integrity while elegantly serving the needs of users and bringing them moments of delight.

If this type of challenge excites you, we’d love to talk.

Responsibilities

• Manage and mentor our product design team, to help them do the best work of their lives, and growing in their careers
• Lead and evolve our design process from discovery to delivery, ensuring that designs are user-centered, effective, and scalable
• Scale our design team and evolve our design principles so that our product teams can iterate quickly and consistently
• Work with your team, engineering, product management, product marketing and leadership to ensure that we’re delivering delightful user experiences
• Foster a culture of design excellence and continuous improvement of both our product and our design process

Requirements

• 10+ years in product design, with 5+ years of that as a design manager
• Experience on a fast-growing team, where you’ve operated in a fast-paced environment of uncertainty
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and leadership skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate a team
• Demonstrated experience in application systems design, with a passion for solving complex problems
• Strong knowledge of design tools, technologies and process best practices
• A strongly held belief that details matter

Nice to haves

• Experience building and/or working on a creation tool (e.g. word processor, design tool, audio or video editing app)

The base salary range for this role is $189,000-$245,000. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, and location, and they may vary from the amount above.

As a Senior Product Designer, you will help build end-to-end experiences for our users — from improvement to our project browser, our accounts admin, to upcoming editor features. You’ll collaborate closely with user research, product management and engineering to design and ship experiences that make it easy for anyone to create and edit video.

Our product is an intricate web of interconnected features, which means design at Descript is mostly about systems design. Designers who do well here are ones are the ones who love mind-melting puzzles, where you have to figure out how to keep all the interconnected parts straight in your head, and build something that has structural integrity while elegantly serving the needs of users. Join us to help build the future of creative tools.

Responsibilities

• Be the lead designer in a feature team, working closely with key stakeholders and fellow designers to define next-generation video editing experiences
• Bring clarity and insight to problems that are broad and ambiguous in scope, integrating user, business, and technical constraints through structured thinking and concise communication
• Contribute to the definition and expansion of our design system
• Own the design process from concept through to execution, iterating based on feedback and user research
• Collaborate with PMs, user research and fellow product designers to make your work better, and be there as a thought partner for others when they need your help
• Design superb user experiences, with an insane attention to detail

Requirements

• 6+ years as a product designer
• You have experience designing web, mobile or desktop applications with sophisticated user workflows and systems design challenges
• Experience on a fast-growing team, where you’ve operated in a fast-paced environment of uncertainty
• You are known for clear, direct communication and collaborating well with a diverse set of interest groups (engineers, designers, executives)
• You are highly organized and take your commitments seriously
• You enjoy working in ambiguity and can lead the design process for a cross-functional team
• You have a portfolio that exhibits strong systems design and conceptual thinking, and a real passion for your craft
• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent work experience in Design

Nice to haves

• Experience building and/or working on a creation tool (e.g., word processor, design tool, audio or video editing tool)

The base salary range for this role is $163,00-$192,500. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, and location, and they may vary from the amount above.

At Descript, we’ve spent the last six years building a magical and versatile audio/video creation tool that’s beloved by scores of podcasters and video creators.

While most of our customers are solo creators or small teams, the product has reached a level of maturity that we’re now seeing promising organic adoption of Descript among businesses. By making it fast and easy to look and sound good, Descript is adding video to the communication toolkit of marketers, sales and support representatives, training and recruiting teams, all while serving as a company-wide tool for internal collaboration.

So while enterprise sales is currently small, it’s one of our most exciting near-term growth opportunities - we’re looking for an up-and-coming sales leader to make it happen. We want to empower our customers to achieve their outcomes quickly. Our entrepreneurial team operates in a non-commissioned sales environment - enabling our team to always make decisions that are consistently best for our customers and aligned with Descript’s long-term success.

Responsibilities

• Scale our Enterprise Sales Motion. You’ll lead the enterprise sales and success team (currently two people), working closely with marketing identify the ICP, generate leads, and develop a playbook that we can use to further scale the program.
• Lead Generation Strategy. Work with Marketing to identify the ICP and iterate on the lead generation playbook.
• Develop a High Touch PLG Motion. Thousands of teams are already using Descript. You’ll figure out which of them can be expanded and cultivated as enterprise leads.
• What this isn’t: We’re looking for someone who is more of a "zero to one" type that loves the challenge of wading into ambiguity and figuring out how to crack the code on selling a horizontal product to enterprises, much more than someone whose specialty is scaling sales teams and processes to dozens/hundreds of reps.

Requirements

• Career Stage: You should have 3+ years managing a sales team. We’re looking for someone in that sweet spot where they have enough management experience that they’re not going to be learning the basics on the job, but they still love to get their hands dirty on the frontlines in all the nitty gritty details.
• Resourcefulness: You should be able to point to a “zero to one” style initiative you’ve led in the past - something where you’ve had to figure out the playbook from a state of ambiguity, not just executed on a playbook that was already in place.
• Tools: You should know Salesforce well - and generally, be comfortable with your tools.
• Domain Experience: We’d love to find someone with experience working on a SAAS tool and with a PLG freemium motion and a horizontal customer base - i.e. a product like a project management or productivity tool where there’s not necessarily one clear buyer.

The base salary range for this role is $180,000-$250,000. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, and location, and they may vary from the amount above.