Join the Team

making AI more accessible

We're headquartered in New York. Our team's experience spans a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, from machine learning and math to non-profit and business. We work as a collaborative team that collectively builds the future of accessibility.

See Open Positions

Our Values

Be Candid but Kind

We tell the truth with empathy — even when it's hard — to help each other grow and build better products together.

Prioritize Ruthlessly

We cut the complexity, clarity wins.

Test to Learn

We don't guess, we test. We build to find the truth, learn directly from our users, and make an impact faster than anyone else

Always Learning

We seek feedback, welcome new ideas, and stay hungry to grow — personally, professionally, and as a company.

Embrace Challenges

We face the unknown with resilience, solving what others think is impossible.

Collaboration Over Ego

We win as a team. Ideas are judged on their success, not on who brings them to the table.

Our Process

What do we offer?

We offer comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance for you and your dependents.
Competitive salary and equity packages.
Flexible Hours
Paid Time Off

What does our hiring process look like?

The interview process at Sign-Speak changes based on role and candidate, but our standard process looks like this:

Step 1:
Submit your resume via our website
Step 2:
You’ll have a chat with one of our staff to discuss your career interests and relevant experience, and learn more about Sign-Speak story.
Step 3:
For technical roles, you’ll have a thirty-minute technical screening interview with our CTO. For operations or policy roles, you’ll get a take-home assignment. These typically involve writing responses to several role-relevant questions; they may occasionally require some outside research. Assignments usually take between 2-5 hours, depending on the role. We include this to minimize bias and make well-informed hiring decisions. We think seeing a candidate’s work helps us assess how they might actually perform on the job; similarly, the assignment gives candidates a better idea of what their work at Sign-Speak might entail. We recognize that completing work assignments requires time and effort, and that they are not perfectly reflective of the role’s work. Nonetheless, we think that work tests are a useful complement to interviews and reference checks.
Step 4:
For technical roles, you’ll have 1-2 more one-hour technical interviews, plus a culture interview. For operations or policy roles, you’ll have 1-3 hours of interviews, including a culture interview.
Step 5:
We’ll ask for some references and check them. Please note that you can ask us any questions at any point within this process.
Step 6:
We’ll make you an offer!

Things to keep in mind:

We have several brilliant colleagues who never went to college or are college dropouts. So we do not require a degree for you to apply to any position.
We currently do not offer internships.
If you’ve done interesting independent research, written an insightful blog post, or made substantial contributions to open-source software, put that at the top of your resume!
All our interviews are conducted remotely. We prefer EST office hours, but we can be flexible if that’s difficult for you.
If interviews don’t work out this time, you’re welcome to re-apply after 12 months, and earlier if something materially changes about your experience or skills.
If we make an offer, we’re happy to give you time to think about it and finish up any other interview processes you’re going through.

Open Positions

Product & Growth Lead

Job Summary

Sign-Speak is seeking a creative, organized, and user-focused Product & Growth Lead to join our growing team. This is an entry-level role for someone interested in working across product, design, and go-to-market initiatives at an early-stage technology company.

Reporting directly to the Chief Product Officer, the Product & Growth Lead will support the development and growth of Sign-Speak's products by helping with product design, user research, product launches, customer feedback, analytics, and growth initiatives.

The ideal candidate is comfortable wearing multiple hats, enjoys solving problems, has a strong eye for design, and is interested in understanding how users interact with technology. This role will work closely with product, engineering, sales, and marketing to help move ideas from early concepts through launch and adoption.

Compensation

Base Salary: $90,000 - $95,000

Additional Benefits

Health insurance, Stock options, Professional development support

Company Description

Sign-Speak is a fast-growing startup that's on a mission to improve communication between the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities and the hearing world. Our innovative language software recognizes Sign Language and translates it into spoken word or text, and vice versa, using Machine Learning. We're proud to have raised institutional funding and received an NSF grant, and we're continuing to grow our products and technology.

At Sign-Speak, we're a fun and compassionate team, but we're also extremely hard-working. We're looking for individuals who are as dedicated to our mission as we are and who are willing to put in the effort to help us achieve our goals.

As part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technology, collaborate with a diverse and talented group of individuals, and make a real difference in people's lives. We offer a dynamic and supportive work environment that values innovation, creativity, and teamwork.

Key Responsibilities

Support the Chief Product Officer with product planning, research, design, and execution.
Create wireframes, mockups, prototypes, and other product designs based on user and business needs.
Help improve the user experience across Sign-Speak products by identifying usability issues and proposing solutions.
Gather and organize feedback from customers, users, internal teams, and product analytics.
Interview users and assist with usability testing, pilot programs, and product research.
Help translate customer needs and product ideas into clear requirements for the engineering team.
Assist with product quality assurance and test new features before release.
Track bugs, feature requests, and product improvements and help maintain the product backlog.
Monitor product analytics, user behavior, conversion funnels, and adoption metrics to identify opportunities for improvement.
Support go-to-market planning for new products and features.
Help develop product positioning, messaging, website content, demonstrations, and sales enablement materials.
Coordinate product launches across product, engineering, marketing, and sales.
Monitor product adoption after launches and recommend ways to improve engagement and conversion.
Conduct competitive and market research to identify trends and opportunities.
Help maintain product documentation, release notes, and internal product materials.
Work on multiple projects across different Sign-Speak products as company priorities evolve.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree or relevant experience in product management, product design, UX/UI design, marketing, business, technology, or a related field.
Strong interest in technology, product development, user experience, and growth.
Experience with or willingness to learn product design tools such as Figma.
Strong visual design instincts and attention to detail.
Ability to understand user problems and translate them into potential product solutions.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Comfortable working with data and learning product analytics tools.
Ability to work independently and manage multiple projects at the same time.
Willingness to learn quickly and work in a fast-paced startup environment.
Comfortable working across product, design, marketing, sales, and engineering rather than specializing in only one area.
Some knowledge of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community is always preferred, but if you don't know this, we'll teach you.
Proficiency in American Sign Language is preferred.

Preferred Experience

Experience in any of the following is helpful but not required:

Figma or other product design tools
UX/UI design
Product analytics
User interviews or usability testing
Product management
Product marketing
Growth marketing
Website or landing page design
SaaS products
AI/ML products
Accessibility technology
Startup environments

Location

Preferred: In person in Rochester, New York.

Equipment, Machines, and Software Used

This position requires the regular use of a computer, keyboard, mouse, video conferencing software, product design tools, analytics tools, and other web-based software. Must have a strong internet connection. Sign-Speak will provide a work-issued laptop and monitor.

Disclaimer

All requirements are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities.
This description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee(s) occupying this position.
Employees will be required to follow any other position-related instructions and to perform any other position-related duties requested.
The firm reserves the right to add to or revise an employee's duties at any time at its sole discretion.
This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an "at will" employment relationship.

Apply

Full-Time Backend Engineer

Job Summary

Backend engineers at Sign-Speak manage our technology infrastructure, from our cutting-edge AI communication systems to our machine learning pipelines and data collection platforms. Our infrastructure moves fast and changes rapidly, with strong requirements for reliability, throughput, and end-to-end latency.

We are looking for a Backend Engineer with experience in networking, transport protocols, and real-time communication systems. This engineer will help us expand our backend engineering capacity while bringing valuable expertise in networking and media transport technologies, such as WebRTC.

Our ideal candidate has a strong understanding of standard backend software engineering, software architecture, networking fundamentals (particularly OSI Layers 3 and 4), and experience working with real-time media transport systems. Familiarity with network security and defensive security practices is a plus.

We don't particularly care which technical stack you're most familiar with, as long as you have experience with a standard technology stack and a strong foundation in software engineering.

However, it's important to be ready for intensive onboarding. We aim to get new engineers up and running as quickly as reasonably possible.

Compensation

Base Salary: 100,000-140,000 annually

Additional Benefits

Health insurance, stock options, and professional development support.

Company Description

Sign-Speak is a fast-growing startup on a mission to improve communication between the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities and the hearing world. Our innovative language software recognizes sign language and translates it into spoken language, and vice versa, using machine learning.

We're proud to have raised institutional funding and received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and we're positioned for continued growth.

At Sign-Speak, we're a fun and compassionate team, but we're also extremely hardworking. We're looking for individuals who are as dedicated to our mission as we are and who are willing to put in the effort to help us achieve our goals.

If you're a highly skilled and motivated software engineer who's passionate about using technology to make the world a more accessible place, we encourage you to apply.

As part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technology, collaborate with a diverse and talented group of individuals, and make a real difference in people's lives.

We offer a dynamic and supportive work environment that values innovation, creativity, and teamwork. If you're ready to join a team that's making a real impact in the world, we want you to be a part of Sign-Speak.

Key Responsibilities

Develop and maintain our backend systems and core infrastructure.
Design, implement, and optimize real-time communication systems, including media transport and networking components.
Develop and improve systems utilizing transport protocols such as TCP, UDP, and WebRTC.
Analyze end-to-end latency, network performance, and communication bottlenecks across our real-time AI applications.
Improve the reliability, throughput, and efficiency of our networking infrastructure.
Expand existing backend systems to support new product requirements and increased usage.
Collaborate with engineers to troubleshoot networking, connectivity, and media transport issues.
Identify and address potential security vulnerabilities within our backend and networking systems.
Write and execute technical design documents.
Participate in on-call rotations and assist with troubleshooting production incidents.

Qualifications

Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.
Experience developing and maintaining backend applications or distributed systems.
Experience with transport protocols such as TCP and UDP.
Familiarity with real-time communication technologies, including WebRTC or similar protocols.
Understanding of concurrent systems and asynchronous communication.
Familiarity with system architecture, databases, and backend infrastructure.
Experience troubleshooting performance, latency, and connectivity issues.
Understanding of network security principles.
Willingness to learn and work in a fast-paced startup environment.

Preferred Areas of Technical Experience

Real-time media transport (e.g. RTMP, QUIC), including audio/video streaming.
WebRTC, RTP, RTCP, ICE, STUN, or TURN.
Network performance optimization and congestion control.
Distributed systems and high-performance networking.
Cloud infrastructure, particularly AWS.
Containerization and orchestration.
Defensive cybersecurity or blue-team security practices.
Network monitoring, intrusion detection, and vulnerability assessment.
AI/ML infrastructure or applications with strict latency requirements.
Knowledge of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) community is always preferred, but if you're unfamiliar with the community, we'll help you learn!

Sponsorship

Sign-Speak sponsors H1B transfer but unfortunately does not support new H1B sponsorship at this time.

Location

Required: Living in the Upstate New York region, such as Syracuse, Buffalo, or Rochester.

Preferred: In-person in Rochester, New York.

Equipment, Machines, and Software Used

This position requires regular use of a computer and related equipment. A reliable internet connection is required.

Sign-Speak will provide a work-issued laptop, monitor, and other standard workstation equipment.

Disclaimer

All requirements are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities.
This description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee(s) occupying this position.
Employees will be required to follow any other position-related instructions and perform other position-related duties as reasonably requested.
Sign-Speak reserves the right to add to or revise an employee's duties in accordance with applicable law.
This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at-will employment relationship.

Apply

Full-Time Machine Learning Engineer

Job Summary

Machine Learning Engineers at Sign-Speak help develop and deploy the AI systems that power our sign language recognition and communication technologies.

Our machine learning systems operate in demanding environments where accuracy, reliability, computational efficiency, and end-to-end latency are critical.

We are looking for a Machine Learning Engineer who combines experience in machine learning research with strong software engineering and model deployment skills.

The ideal candidate has experience training machine learning models, implementing research papers, optimizing model performance, and deploying models in production environments.

This engineer should also have a strong understanding of hardware accelerators, particularly GPUs, and experience optimizing machine learning workloads for efficient inference.

Experience deploying models directly on devices, such as smartphones, is particularly valuable as we continue developing AI technologies that can operate across different environments and hardware platforms.

This engineer will help us expand our machine learning research and development capacity while bringing additional expertise in model optimization, quantization, machine learning operations, and on-device computing.

We don't particularly care which machine learning frameworks or technical stacks you're most familiar with, as long as you have strong foundational knowledge and experience working with widely used tools.

However, it's important to be ready for intensive onboarding. We aim to get new engineers up and running as quickly as reasonably possible.

Compensation

Base Salary: 120,000-160,000 annually

Additional Benefits

Health insurance, stock options, and professional development support.

Company Description

We're proud to have raised institutional funding and received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and we're positioned for continued growth.

If you're a highly skilled and motivated software engineer who's passionate about using technology to make the world a more accessible place, we encourage you to apply.

As part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technology, collaborate with a diverse and talented group of individuals, and make a real difference in people's lives.

Key Responsibilities

Develop, train, evaluate, and improve machine learning models used in our sign language recognition and communication systems.
Implement and experiment with machine learning architectures and techniques described in research papers.
Optimize machine learning models for accuracy, latency, throughput, and computational efficiency.
Develop and improve GPU-accelerated training and inference pipelines.
Apply optimization techniques such as model quantization, pruning, and other performance improvements.
Deploy and maintain machine learning models in production environments.
Develop and optimize models for execution on local devices, including smartphones and other edge computing platforms.
Integrate machine learning models into real-time applications.
Improve machine learning infrastructure, model serving, and deployment workflows.
Investigate performance bottlenecks related to model execution, memory utilization, and hardware acceleration.
Evaluate tradeoffs between model accuracy, inference speed, and computational resource requirements.
Write and execute technical design documents.
Collaborate with the research and engineering teams to translate experimental models into production-ready solutions.

Qualifications

Degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Engineering, or equivalent professional experience. Preferred PhD.
Experience developing, training, and evaluating machine learning models.
Proficiency in Python and familiarity with commonly used machine learning frameworks.
Experience implementing or adapting machine learning techniques from research papers.
Understanding of neural networks, deep learning architectures, and model optimization.
Experience developing or deploying machine learning models in production or other performance-constrained environments.
Strong understanding of GPUs and hardware-accelerated machine learning.
Familiarity with model inference optimization and performance benchmarking.
Understanding of software engineering principles, backend systems, and machine learning pipelines.
Willingness to learn and work in a fast-paced startup environment.

Preferred Areas of Technical Experience

PyTorch, TensorFlow, or similar machine learning frameworks.
GPU computing and optimization, including CUDA.
Deep learning model training, fine-tuning, and evaluation.
Model quantization, pruning, distillation, and compression.
Model inference optimization using technologies such as ONNX Runtime or TensorRT.
Machine Learning Operations (MLOps), model serving, and deployment pipelines.
On-device machine learning deployment using Core ML, TensorFlow Lite/LiteRT, or similar frameworks.
Experience optimizing models for mobile GPUs, NPUs, or other edge accelerators.
Real-time machine learning inference and low-latency AI applications.
Computer vision, video understanding, human pose estimation, or related applications.
Sequence modeling, multimodal machine learning, or transformer-based architectures.
Distributed model training and cloud-based GPU infrastructure.
Performance profiling, memory optimization, and hardware-aware model development.
Knowledge of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) community is always preferred, but if you're unfamiliar with the community, we'll help you learn!

Sponsorship

Sign-Speak sponsors H1B transfer but unfortunately does not support new H1B sponsorship at this time.

Location

Required: Living in the Upstate New York region, such as Syracuse, Buffalo, or Rochester.

Preferred: In-person in Rochester, New York.

Equipment, Machines, and Software Used

This position requires regular use of a computer and related equipment. A reliable internet connection is required.

Sign-Speak will provide a work-issued laptop, monitor, and other standard workstation equipment.

Additional development equipment or access to specialized computing resources will be provided based on the needs of the position.

Disclaimer

All requirements are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities.
This description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee(s) occupying this position.
Employees will be required to follow any other position-related instructions and perform other position-related duties as reasonably requested.
Sign-Speak reserves the right to add to or revise an employee's duties in accordance with applicable law.
This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at-will employment relationship.

Apply