Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Mappa is an AI-native distribution company focused on creators and media IP. They are seeking a Product Engineer to build out their podcast vertical, where the role involves developing automated generation pipelines and conducting AI-first editorial experiments while closely collaborating with the Head of Product.
Responsibilities
- Automated podcast generation pipelines. Script → voice → edit → publish, powered by whichever LLM / TTS / audio stack fits the job. You'll own the architecture
- AI-first podcast experimentation. Fast editorial experiments — formats, hosts, lengths, distribution patterns — instrumented so we actually learn from them
- Contributing to the core platform. The podcast vertical is one piece of a larger system. You'll extend shared infrastructure (content models, job orchestration, posting, analytics) rather than building parallel stacks
- Shipping MVPs in weeks, not quarters. Proposal → skeleton → production. Tight loop with product and the rest of engineering
- Scaling what works. When an experiment hits, you're also the person thinking about reliability, cost, and how to 10x the volume without rewriting it
Skills
- Generalist engineer with strong product instincts
- Comfortable in Python (our backbone) and TypeScript/React (our frontends)
- Opinionated about data
- Shipped things that run unattended
- Know the difference between 'works on my machine' and 'runs in production'
- Love collaborating with product
- Push back thoughtfully, surface tradeoffs early
- Ship things that actually match the intent behind the spec
- Real taste for online media
- Listen to podcasts actively
- Have opinions about what makes an episode work
- Culturally fluent in US content
- Native-level English
- Read The Ringer, Semafor, Puck, or whatever's replaced them this year
- Know the difference between a Joe Rogan clip and a Lex Fridman clip without being told
- Think in MVPs but build for scale
- Know when to stub and when to structure
- Don't over-engineer
- Don't ship things that will have to be thrown away in six weeks
- High-agency
- Write the proposal before the code
- State your assumptions and proceed
- Don't wait to be unblocked — you unblock yourself and flag tradeoffs clearly
- Experience at an AI-native startup, content platform, or media/editorial tooling company
- Prior work with audio pipelines (ASR, TTS, editing, publishing)
- A personal project you'll want to show us — ideally something in media, content, or automation
Benefits
- Competitive cash
- Close collaboration with a product-led founding team
- A senior team that takes engineering and editorial craft seriously
- Remote, US hours
- A paid work trial (1–2 weeks, part-time compatible) on a real problem in the podcast vertical
Company Overview