Staff Engineer (Europe)

Job Description

Hi Auto is the most trustworthy AI order taker for drive-thrus. Built for scale.

Hi Auto is a reliable AI order taker for drive-thrus, purpose-built for high-volume QSRs. It helps brands consistently deliver faster, error-free service with over 93% order completion and 96% accuracy, at scale.

Growing quickly, Hi Auto has the largest number of voice AI drive-thru restaurant deployments, competing directly with both big tech and restaurant tech players. 

We are seeking a Staff Engineer in Europe to join our Infrastructure team.

About the role: 

Our backend is developed all in Python running in the cloud over k8s. It's not a typical backend interacting with a UI frontend, handling audio streams in real-time.
Our systems integrate with a large number of third party services. Because of the myriad of challenges and the fast pace of a startup, each team member gets to experience a lot of professional growth and ownership.

In this role, you will:

• Own parts of our core backend infrastructure, which is a complex, real-time distributed system written in Python and Rust
• Own big initiatives end-to-end and deliver them with minimal guidance
• Troubleshoot highly complex production issues
• Constantly improve our development velocity while maintaining a very high reliability standard

Requirements

• BSc in Software Development or equivalent industry experience
• Previously a Staff or Principal Engineer at a startup company
• 10+ years of experience in Python development
• Strong Python Asyncio experience
• Strong software design skills
• Excellent communicator in writing and orally
• Significant experience with at least one strongly typed language (Rust, C++, Go, Swift, Java, etc)
• Deep understanding of Networking Protocols, Operating Systems
• Deep knowledge of Python Profiling
• Experience in delivering and troubleshooting a production-grade cloud-based distributed system
• Experience in building and troubleshooting a real-time low-level system (e.g. kernel, drivers, RTOS)
• Kubernetes and Helm experience
• Experience with different observability stacks
• Strong LLM prompting skills, but also being able to work without them
• Experience with gRPC and its troubleshooting
• Being a contributor or maintainer of an open-source package

Bonus: 

• An understanding of one of the following: WebRTC, STUN/TURN, SIP, RTP, HLS, RTMP
• Having worked with Rust and PyO3
• Audio programming experience

Qualities We're Looking For:

Fast - you know you're a 10X engineer, not just yet another senior engineer

Resilience – being able to balance planned work with real-time issues in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment

Strong communication skills – in both written and verbal communication, with the ability to produce crisp and clear documentation

Problem solver

Extremely Strong ownership and independence