Job Title

Company Description YAL.ai (Your Alternative Life) is an innovative communication and discovery platform that transforms how people connect, interact, and collaborate. Powered by advanced AI, the platform offers secure instant messaging, group discussions, interactive communities, and VoIP calling. Leveraging a robust Zero Trust Architecture and on-device AI models, YAL.ai emphasizes user privacy, data security, and real-time fraud detection. With features such as multilingual automatic speech recognition (ASR), personalized recommendations, and multilingual support, YAL.ai empowers users to create meaningful connections and engage in a safe, privacy-focused digital environment. The company is built on a foundation of trust and innovation, encapsulated in their mission, "Where AI Meets Integrity."About the Role We are seeking a Principal Speech Scientist to lead and drive innovation in speech and language technologies. In this senior individual contributor and technical leadership role, you will define the strategic direction for speech science initiatives, mentor a team of researchers and engineers, and deliver cutting-edge solutions that power our products.Responsibilities Define and execute the long-term technical vision and roadmap for speech science research and development Lead the design and development of advanced speech recognition, synthesis, speaker verification, and natural language understanding systems Drive innovation by staying at the forefront of academic research and translating state-of-the-art techniques into production-ready solutions Mentor and guide senior and junior scientists, fostering a culture of technical excellence and intellectual curiosity Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, and design teams to align research efforts with business objectives Represent the organization at conferences, publish in top-tier venues, and contribute to the broader research community Establish best practices for experimentation, model evaluation, and data pipeline development Influence organizational strategy by providing expert input on build-vs-buy decisions and technology partnershipsQualifications Ph.D. / Masters with a background in Speech Processing, Computational Linguistics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a closely related field 7+ years of industry experience in speech and audio processing, with a proven record of shipping products at scale Deep expertise in end-to-end ASR, TTS, speaker diarization, speech enhancement, speech translation or related domains Proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow); experience with large-scale distributed training Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous business problems into well-defined research agendas Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders at all levels Experience leading or mentoring teams of scientists and engineersNice to Have Experience with large language models and multimodal architectures Familiarity with on-device/edge deployment and model optimization techniques Track record of securing patents in speech or audio technology Strong publication record in popular speech conferences / journals