ELSA

Overview of job

About Us

ELSA is a global leader in AI-powered English communication training, dedicated to transforming how people learn and speak English with confidence. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in San Francisco, we operate across the U.S., Vietnam, Portugal, Indonesia, Brazil and Japan.

Powered by proprietary speech-recognition technology and generative AI, ELSA delivers real-time, hyper-personalized feedback to help learners improve pronunciation, fluency, and overall communication effectiveness. With over 50 million learners and 1 billion hours of anonymized speech data, ELSAs depth of language training intelligence is unmatched in the industry.

Our B2B flagship platforms ELSA Enterprise and ELSA Schools empower organizations and educational institutions to elevate communication capabilities and unlock personal and professional opportunities for their people. We design engaging, bite-sized learning experiences that adapt to each learner's goals and context, ensuring measurable improvement and lasting confidence.

Our vision is to become the global standard for real-time English communication training, enabling 1.5 billion language learners worldwide to speak clearly, be understood, and share their stories with the world.

Backed by world-class investors including Googles Gradient Ventures, Monks Hill Ventures, and SOSV, ELSA has been recognized among the top global AI innovators:

• Forbes Top 4 Companies Using AI to Transform the World
• Research Sniper Top 5 Best AI Apps
• ASU+GSV EdTech 150
• CB Insights Top 100 AI Companies

Join us in shaping the future of language learning and empowering millions to unlock opportunity through confident communication.

Role Summary

We operate a Flutter-based ecosystem with 50 million users. At this scale, "small bugs" become "global outages" and "minor lag" becomes "million-dollar churn." We are looking for an EM who is as comfortable discussing Flutter's Layered Architecture as they are discussing AI token optimization and growth flywheels. You will lead the team that builds the core engine of our user experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect for Millions: Lead the transition from "shipping features" to "shipping systems." Ensure our Flutter frontend and Python backend can handle massive, bursty global traffic without degrading.
• Bridge the AI Gap: Work with ML engineers to integrate AI into the mobile UX. This means solving for "streaming" UI, handling model hallucinations gracefully, and keeping the app "snappy" even when the AI is thinking.
• Own the Experimentation Stack: You won't just "do A/B testing"—you will own the infrastructure that allows us to run 20+ experiments simultaneously across different regions without breaking the build.
• Technical Debt Strategist: At 50M users, you can't rewrite everything. You need to make hard calls on where to patch, where to refactor, and where to ignore tech debt in favor of market speed.
• Performance as a Feature: You will treat "Time to Interactive" (TTI) and "App Load Time" as Tier-1 product requirements, equivalent to any new feature.

What We Offer

• Flexible work setup: Remote-first for Singapore, India, Indonesia, Malaysia; hybrid model for Vietnam.
• Comprehensive employee well-being benefits.
• Free ELSA Premium courses to polish your language skills
• Collaborative, international team culture.
• Opportunity to contribute to a fast-growing, well-funded Silicon Valley startup with global impact.

What You Will Have

• Deep Flutter/Dart Knowledge: You've hit the limits of the framework. You know how to debug a janky animation and how to optimize ListView.builder for thousands of items.
• Production Python at Scale: You understand asynchronous programming (Asyncio), connection pooling, and how to scale Python services horizontally.
• The AI Mindset: You've moved past the "magic" of AI and understand the engineering trade-offs: cost, latency, and reliability.
• Experience: You have managed teams in a high-growth B2C environment. If you’ve only ever managed B2B/SaaS with 1,000 seats, this will be a massive culture shock.
• 6-10+ years of software engineering experience
• 2-4+ years in an Engineering Manager or Tech Lead–with–people-management role
• Proven track record of delivering complex products in production
• Strong communication skills, able to align technical execution with business goals
• Fluent in English