Source description

About the role

The Problem

36 million businesses in America need insurance—it’s not optional. 77% are underinsured. 40% have no coverage at all. The distribution system failed them: too slow, too opaque, too confusing.

Voice is the lifeblood of insurance. Businesses call brokers. Brokers call underwriters. The industry runs on phone conversations—millions of calls per day, most of them repetitive, most of them waiting on hold.

We’re adding ~1,000 customers per month. We’ve grown 100x since last year. We’re looking to do even more this year—and that’s why we’re hiring.

Voice is how trust gets built. Voice is how deals get closed. Voice is where the industry lives.

The Thesis

Voice is the hardest part to make computational. Getting voice right is what separates AI demos from AI that operates. Companies like Giga (DoorDash) and HappyRobot (DHL, Ryder) are proving that voice AI can run core operations at enterprise scale. We’re building the same for insurance.

The Role

You’ll own our entire voice AI infrastructure—architecture, implementation, scaling, continuous improvement. Voice isn’t a feature at Harper. It’s a core system that powers sales, operations, and customer service.

Today we have working voice agents. But we’re at 1% of where we need to be. We need to scale from hundreds of calls to thousands. From functional to exceptional.

What You’ll Do

Build outbound at scale — Lead qualification agents calling thousands of prospects daily
Create inbound customer service — 24/7 agents handling policy questions, certificate requests, claims
Ship operations and underwriting voice — 20-30 minute insurance applications over the phone
Build platform infrastructure — Move to custom infrastructure; sub-700ms latency; 10,000+ concurrent calls
Design systems that compound — Every conversation becomes structured decision traces

You Might Be a Fit If…

You’ve built production voice AI (not demos—significant production volume)

You know both fast deployment (VAPI, Retell) and custom infrastructure (Pipecat, LiveKit)

You understand telephony (SIP, RTP, WebRTC)

You’ve achieved sub-second latency in production

You write code with AI (Cursor, Claude Code)

You’re 3-6 years into your career

Requirements

3-6 years software engineering experience
Production voice AI experience at scale
Deep knowledge of voice infrastructure and real-time systems
Experience with latency optimization
Based in San Francisco or willing to relocate
Nice to Have
Telephony background (SIP/RTP)
Experience with specific platforms (VAPI, Retell, Pipecat, LiveKit)
Prior startup experience

Compensation

Salary: $170,000–$275,000 + performance bonuses & equity

Location: San Francisco, in-office

Benefits

Health, dental, and vision insurance
Commuter benefits
Team meals and snacks
The Process
15-min founder call — Alignment on mission and pace
If in SF: Super Day on-site
If outside SF: Technical phone screen, then on-site
To Apply
Voice is the highest-leverage problem in our stack. If that’s the challenge you want—send your resume and links to voice systems you’ve built.

More at Harper