Senior Software Engineer, Internal Deployed

ABOUT RETELL AI

Retell AI is using first-principles thinking to reimagine the call center with cutting-edge voice AI. Thousands of companies now use Retell's AI voice agents to handle sales, support, and logistics calls that once required large teams of human agents. Backed by Y Combinator, Alt Capital, and other leading investors, we've scaled to $80M in ARR with a team of 50, up from $5M at the start of 2025, and are now valued at over $1.5B.

Our vision for 2026 is to build a modern CX platform where entire contact centers are powered by AI. Instead of basic automation that needs constant human tuning, we're creating intelligent AI “workers” that act as frontline agents, QA analysts, and managers, continuously executing, monitoring, and improving every customer interaction.

We're growing fast and looking for ambitious builders who want to tackle hard technical problems, move quickly, and have a real impact on one of the fastest-growing voice AI companies in the world.

Let's build the future together.

Recent recognition

• No. 1 Best Places to Work in the Bay Area, San Francisco Business Times 2026
• Top 50 AI Apps, a16z (2025)
• #3 Fastest-Growing Software Company, G2 Best Software Awards 2026
• Best Agentic AI Software, G2 Best Software Awards 2026
• #4 Fastest-Growing Software Vendor, Brex Benchmark 2025
• Enterprise Tech 30 Class of 2026, Nasdaq & Wing VC
• Top-Ranked Startup, Lean AI Leaderboard
• Backed by Y Combinator

Retell AI transforms customer experience with voice AI for enterprises, including customers like CVS/Aetna, American Airlines, Lenovo, and Grab. We have more customer stories than we can tell!

ABOUT FOUNDERS INITIATIVES

Founders Initiatives is a cross-functional team that works directly with Retell's founders on the company's highest-priority opportunities and challenges. Team members are expected to operate across functions, build from first principles, and help scale the business in whatever way creates the most impact.

This is not a narrowly scoped role, it is a high-ownership builder position where you will work across product, engineering, GTM, operations, and AI systems to design and ship core company infrastructure.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are hiring an Software Engineer, Internal Deployed to build the AI systems and automations that power how Retell operates internally. You'll work directly with our founders and teams to streamline recruiting, sales, finance, operations, and customer support through AI.

You'll design and deploy production-grade AI workflows, internal tools, and agent systems that improve efficiency across the company. This role combines applied AI, software engineering, automation, and business operations.

We're open to exceptional new graduates (0–1 years of experience) who have demonstrated strong engineering ability through internships, research, personal projects, or startup experience. If you enjoy solving real business problems with AI and want to build systems that have an immediate company-wide impact, we'd love to hear from you.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

HR & Recruiting AI Systems

• Build systems that extract structured signals from resumes (skills, experience, founder traits, domain expertise)
• Develop lead scoring models to predict interview success and role fit
• Design AI recruiter workflows for candidate screening and qualification
• Automate personalized outbound email and candidate engagement workflows

Security & Compliance Automation

• Build automation systems for customer security workflows (BAAs, DPAs, DocuSign, contract review flows)
• Automate security questionnaire and compliance response generation
• Improve internal tooling for enterprise readiness and audit processes

Operational Infrastructure Tools

• Build systems for accounts receivable automation and finance-related email workflows
• Create automated enterprise customer onboarding and account setup tools
• Design internal systems that reduce manual operational overhead across teams

3rd-Party Integrations & Platform Work

• Integrate with CRM systems such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and GoHighLevel
• Build workflow automation using tools like Zapier, n8n, and Make
• Design LLM-powered systems using OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, and other models
• Own API-based integrations that connect internal systems across the company

GTM Engineering & Growth Automation

• Build HubSpot and Lark automations to improve sales and marketing efficiency
• Develop lifecycle automation systems for customer engagement and retention
• Create targeted website personalization and ad content generation systems
• Build email personalization and outbound automation pipelines at scale

YOU MIGHT THRIVE IF YOU

• Have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related technical field with 2 years of software development experience, excluding internships.
• Have strong software engineering fundamentals (backend, full-stack, or systems).
• Have demonstrated exceptional engineering ability through internships, startup experience, research, or meaningful side projects.
• Experience with LLMs, AI agents, or modern AI tooling is a strong plus.
• Think like a founder and take ownership from day one.
• Enjoy solving business and operational problems with technology.
• Are excited to work across engineering, product, recruiting, sales, and operations to build tools that improve how the company operates.
• Move quickly, learn fast, and thrive in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.
• Prefer building end-to-end systems over narrowly defined tasks.
• Care deeply about shipping impactful products that solve real problems.
• Exceptional new graduates and engineers with up to 1 year of experience are encouraged to apply.

JOB DETAILS

• Location : Redwood City, CA, US - relocation provided
• US Visas : Retell AI is open to sponsoring work authorization for qualified candidates, including H-1B, TN, L-1, E-3, F-1 (OPT/CPT), and O-1 visas.

Compensation

Our compensation ranges reflect different scopes of responsibility and cash/equity options. Your offer will depend on the skills and impact you demonstrate during interviews, the scope of the role, and your preferred cash/equity balance.

Annual base salary ranges

• Senior: $210,000–$250,000
• Staff: $200,000–$300,000

OTHER BENEFITS

• 100% coverage for medical, dental, and vision insurance
• $70/day DoorDash credit for unlimited breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks
• $200/month wellness reimbursement (gym, fitness classes, etc.)
• $300/month commuter reimbursement (gas, Caltrain, etc.)
• $75/month phone bill reimbursement
• $50/month internet reimbursement

COMPENSATION PHILOSOPHY

• Best Offer Upfront: Choose from three cash-equity balance options; no negotiation needed.
• Top 1% Talent: Above-market pay (top 5 percentile) to attract exceptional builders.
• High Ownership: Small teams, >$1M revenue/employee, and significant equity.
• Performance-Based: Offers tied to interview performance, not experience or past salaries.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

• Intro Call (15-20min) : Connect with our talent team to get a deeper look at the team and the work you'd be doing.
• First Technical Phone Interview (45 min) : System Design & Project Deep Dive
• Second Tech Screen (45min): Tools & Automation
• Final Interview
• Coding and Technical Round (90 min)
• Cross-Functional Interview (30 min)
• Past Project Deep Dive (30 min)