Applied AI Engineer

About Avoca

Avoca is transforming how home service companies engage with their customers. Our AI-powered conversational agents handle every high-value inbound call, from booking jobs, qualifying leads, and driving higher revenue, all at a speed and consistency unmatched by human call centers.

We're a Series B startup backed by Kleiner Perkins, Meritech Capital, General Catalyst, and other top-tier investors, with $125M raised and a $1B valuation. We grew 10x in 2025 and have scaled to 170+ employees in under two years across our NYC headquarters and Santa Barbara office.

In a $1T+ market where 85% of missed calls go to competitors, we're building the category-defining platform for AI-driven customer engagement, serving the largest brands in home services. With high-energy, in-office teams in both locations, every hire here has an immediate and visible impact.

About the Role

As an Applied AI Engineer, you'll embed directly with the largest brands in home services - learning how their businesses actually run, then designing and shipping the AI systems that run their front lines. This isn't a solutions role where you hand off specs and stop coding: you own the build end-to-end, from the first customer conversation to a live deployment handling real call volume. And because you have the deepest view of what customers actually encounter, what you learn in the field feeds directly into our core product roadmap.

Recent recognition:

• How a chance encounter in Texas sparked a $1 billion Kleiner Perkins-backed AI startup | Fortune (2026)
• Should you join: Avoca | Next Play (2026)
• Brody Pennell Partners with Avoca to Take On the Full Customer Experience | Yahoo Finance (2026)

What You'll Do

• Embed with customers to deeply understand how their business runs, then design and deploy AI voice agents that work from day one.
• Build production integrations into customer CRM/FSM systems (APIs, webhooks, and data flows) plus the monitoring and feedback loops that keep them healthy.
• Translate messy, real-world business requirements into clean technical architecture and shipped code.
• Spot patterns across deployments and turn them into reusable tooling and product improvements that scale beyond a single customer.
• Operate with high autonomy in high-stakes, ambiguous environments.
• Serve as the on-site technical presence for strategic accounts.

What You'll Bring

• 3+ | 5+ years in software engineering with strong full-stack or backend fundamentals; Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering degree or equivalent experience.
• Proficient | Advanced in TypeScript/JavaScript (Next.js, React, Node/Fastify); comfortable with PostgreSQL and AWS; ships production-grade code.
• Excel at communicating complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Thrives in fast-paced, ambiguous settings - has delivered systems in dynamic environments with shifting priorities.
• Eagerness to work in person with us in NYC full time, with travel to customer sites for key deployments.
• Bonus: LLMs, prompt engineering, AI agent frameworks, vector databases, or voice/telephony infrastructure - and an eye for how LLM systems shape user experience.
• Bonus: direct customer-facing experience - working with clients to scope, implement, or roll out features.

Your first 6 months

• Month 1: Onboard into our TypeScript/voice-AI stack, shadow a live deployment, and ship your first production changes to a customer integration.
• Month 3: Own the technical build on a strategic account end-to-end - scoping the integration, standing up the agent, and validating it against customer-agreed success criteria.
• Month 6: Be the technical owner at go-live for a flagship account, on-site when it counts, with reusable tools or product improvements you've built now running across other deployments.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Company-sponsored 401(k) through Vestwell
• Flexible PTO plus U.S. federal holidays
• Monthly wellness stipend
• Daily in-office lunch through Parkday
• Dinner covered when working late
• Commuter benefits
• Standing desks and workspace accommodations available on request
• All core tools and software provided

Why Avoca

At Avoca, you'll be part of a team that's building a category-defining company at the center of a massive market opportunity. We're a fast-moving, collaborative team with a culture designed for builders who thrive on speed, iteration, and impact.

Avoca provides equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability.