Staff Engineer (Europe)
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