Voice AI Lead (Fixed-Term 6 Months)

Job description

Our mission at Oura is to empower every person to own their inner potential. Our award-winning products help our global community gain a deeper knowledge of their readiness, activity, and sleep quality by using their Oura Ring and its connected app. We've helped millions of people understand and improve their health by providing daily insights and practical steps to inspire healthy lifestyles. Empowering the world starts with living our values and empowering our team. As a quickly growing company focused on helping people live healthier and happier lives, we ensure that our team members have what they need to do their best work — both in and out of the office. Oura is seeking a Voice AI Lead to shape our Voice vision and turn it into experiences members can hear, trust, and use.Working within Audio Design, you’ll partner with Content Design, Engineering, and Product to define, implement, and scale Voice AI experiences across Oura. You will identify opportunities, prototype features, guide implementation, and build initial design, production, and evaluation practices that teams can reuse. You will also evaluate vendor voice models and recommend the right fit for Oura, balancing voice quality, technical constraints, product needs, and responsible AI.As a member of the Design team, you will collaborate with Audio Design, Interaction Design, Content Design, Product Design, Product Management, AI/ML, Engineering, Research, Brand, Legal, Partnerships, Privacy, Procurement, Localization, and Software and Hardware teams. What You Will Do: • Partner with Audio Design and Content Design to shape Voice direction and translate it into persona, voice identity, design principles, and actionable briefs • Develop voice design prompts and guidance for tone, pacing, prosody, expressivity, pronunciation, and context-appropriate vocal delivery • Audition vendor voice models and design voice performance through scripts, pronunciation rules, and model settings; listen to and refine results across contexts and devices • Partner with Content Design and Engineering to refine conversational behavior, including turn-taking, interruptions, mishearing, repair, and knowing when not to speak • Establish voice quality criteria and review methods covering delivery, pronunciation, accessibility, safety, and intelligibility • Partner with Legal, Privacy, and AI/ML on responsible AI voice guidelines • Work with product teams across Oura to identify and prioritize Voice AI opportunities • Translate voice design needs into requirements and acceptance criteria with AI/ML and Engineering, informing implementation without owning platform architecture • Evaluate text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-speech (STS) providers and tools; recommend choices based on voice quality, technical constraints, product needs, and responsible AI requirements • Drive vendor and voice talent workflows, assets, and approvals; partner with Localization on quality across languages and with Legal, Partnerships, Privacy, and Procurement on consent, usage rights, AI-cloning permissions, and data retention This is a hybrid role out of our San Francisco office. What you'll bring • 8+ years of experience in relevant technologies. • Working proficiency with audio editing tools (Pro Tools, Logic Pro, iZotope RX) • Hands-on fluency with AI voice platforms, LLM tools, and prototyping and evaluation environments, including configuring models, iterating prompts, and comparing outputs • Demonstrated experience independently leading complex voice or audio design initiatives from ambiguous problems through production and testing, resolving competing priorities and maintaining quality across teams, dependencies, vendors, and approvals • Experience translating voice identity into practical design standards and production assets that other teams can use • Familiarity with AI voice consent, likeness, cloning, training, data retention, and responsible AI practices • Experience evaluating voice models and conducting quality and regression testing • Technical fluency and the ability to translate creative and product needs into requirements, evaluate tradeoffs, and work effectively with AI/ML and Engineering • Clear communication and sound judgment, with a track record of influencing cross-functional decisions