Machine Learning Team Lead

Modulate is the leader in conversational voice intelligence. We enable enterprises to deeply understand how people communicate and take timely action based on those insights. Our products help detect harm, prevent fraud, and build safer, more trusted online and real-world voice environments. We are building a Conversation Intelligence Platform — APIs, workflows, and applications that bring voice understanding to customers at enterprise scale.

We’re looking for a Machine Learning Team Lead to guide and grow our ML research and engineering team. This role combines deep technical expertise in machine learning with strong leadership skills to ensure the team is focused, effective, and aligned with business priorities. You will work closely with executive stakeholders while supporting a high-performing, collaborative research team.

Your Impact

Lead and support Modulate’s machine learning research and engineering team

Ensure the team is aligned with business priorities and product needs

Help grow team capability through hiring, mentoring, and skill development

Maintain high team morale and an effective, collaborative culture

Drive clarity on feasibility, prioritization, and estimation of ML work

Ensure Modulate continues to ship high-quality, impactful ML models

What You Will Do

Collaborate with engineers, researchers, and executives (CTO, CEO, VP Product/Design) on ML strategy and priorities

Deeply understand the team’s models and research to guide technical direction

Help prioritize research and engineering efforts based on impact and feasibility

Support the team in designing, training, and shipping machine learning models

Mentor researchers and engineers and support their technical growth

Participate in hiring and team expansion efforts

Communicate model performance and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Optionally contribute directly to ML research and engineering work as an IC when needed

Ensure strong collaboration across research, engineering, and product teams

What We Are Looking For

Experience conducting machine learning research and shipping models

Experience collaborating closely with other researchers (peer, lead, or mentor level)

Experience communicating research externally (papers, conferences, etc.)

Strong experience with Python and PyTorch

Ability to understand and guide complex ML systems and tradeoffs

Strong leadership, communication, and organizational skills

Ability to align technical work with business priorities

Nice to Have

Prior experience managing ML researchers or ML engineering teams

Experience working with audio models or speech systems (ASR, TTS, etc.)

Experience with cloud infrastructure, especially AWS

Experience in fast-paced startup environments

Benefits

Competitive salary + equity

Full health, dental, and vision coverage

Flexible PTO with strong culture of taking it

Weekly team lunches with dietary accommodations

Hybrid work with core in-office days and flexible remote options

Leadership and technical learning sessions

Career development and continued growth support

Up to 8 weeks work-from-anywhere policy

A deeply inclusive, human-centered culture

Pay TransparencyModulate believes in transparency as a cornerstone of equity and trust. Compensation for this role is based on seniority, skills, and experience.

Salary: $170k-210K

Equity: Offered

Other perks: HSA, FSA, 15 holidays, professional development resources

Candidates may be located anywhere in the U.S., with preference for proximity to major tech hubs such as San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, New York, or Austin.

About ModulateModulate is on a mission to make voice a force for good online. Our tools help communities thrive by proactively detecting toxic behavior, protecting user identity, and empowering safety teams. We’re trusted by leaders in gaming and beyond—and we’re growing fast. We believe that great cultures don’t just happen. That’s why we’ve built a foundation of intentional systems: from bias-reducing hiring practices to transparent pay to tools that help teams collaborate across communication styles. At Modulate, we treat people like people—and we’re building technology that does the same.

Ready to join us? Apply here or reach out directly—we’re excited to meet you.

A quick note as you apply

Please apply through the website rather than emailing careers@modulate.ai

For application questions (“Your fit for the role,” “Your values/goals,” and “Why Modulate?”), focus on relevant experience and motivations

Avoid including protected demographic information

Keep responses authentic and in your own voice