Artificial intelligence
10 Character.AI engineers
These ten Character.AI engineers, all still at the company, hold software, product and technical staff engineering roles there, according to their profiles. A reader can learn what engineering work at Character.AI involves from people who have done it.
Professionals to explore
01—10Cody Alexander
LinkedInExperience: Senior Software Engineer · Character.ai
Senior Software Engineer at Character.AI since May 2024, listed in San Francisco at senior level in Engineering and Technical. Former Senior Full Stack Engineer at Pieces (2020–2024), Full Stack Developer at 7T Inc. (2018–2020) and Software Engineer at Accenture (2014–2018).
Dave Smith
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · Character.ai
Software Engineer at Character.AI since May 2023 in Seattle, listed at senior level in Engineering and Technical. Former Software Engineer at Meta (2020–2023), Team Lead Staff Software Engineer, Data Platform at Lyft (2019–2020) and Staff Software Engineer at Tableau (2015–2017).
Dusty Jewett
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · Character.ai
Software Engineer at Character.AI since April 2025, based in Seattle, per the role listing. Former Sr Staff Software Engineer at Songtradr (2022–2025), Frontend Engineer at Twitch (2016–2022) and Sr Engineer at TurboPatent (2015–2016); the profile also lists Founder of Hat6 Development LLC since 2005.
Kenneth Pirman
LinkedInExperience: Technical Staff · Character.ai
Technical Staff at Character.AI since June 2024, based in Brooklyn; the profile says he is engineering next-gen consumer apps there. Former Senior Software Engineer at Nexthink (2021–2023) and Senior Software Engineer Blue Brain Project at EPFL (2018–2021), and Software Engineer at SOFTGAMES (2015–2018).
Ker Lee Yap
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · Character.ai
Software Engineer at Character.AI since January 2026, in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the Engineering and Technical department. Former Hacker-in-Residence at Spark Capital (2024), Co-Founder of Exaverse (2022–2023) and Software Engineer at Uber (2019–2022), per the profile.
Mike Martin
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · Character.ai
Software Engineer at Character.AI since October 2025, based in Sunnyvale, in the Engineering and Technical department. Former Senior Software Engineer at Google (2021–2025), Founder of Phonetic AI (2020–2021) and Chief Technology Officer at Vibely (2018–2019), per the profile.
Mohamed Hirole
LinkedInExperience: Member of Technical Staff · Character.ai
Member of Technical Staff at Character.AI since April 2026 in San Francisco; the profile says he is building the backend for AI entertainment and has experience building software infrastructure for AI and video/audio applications. Former Software Engineer at Amazon (2023–2025) and Twitch (2023–2024).
Ryder Donahue
LinkedInExperience: Founding Product Engineer · Character.ai
Founding Product Engineer at Character.AI since January 2023, based in Hilo, Hawaii, per the role title on the profile. Former Senior Software Engineer II at Cruise (2019–2023), Senior Software Engineer at Lyft (2017–2019) and Software Engineer II at Microsoft (2014–2017); the profile also lists Terraformation (2022–2024).
Sergey Zhupanov
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · Character.ai
Software Engineer at Character.AI since January 2024 in Menlo Park; the role listing names the Backend team, Go and Python. Former Software Engineer at Datadog (2019–2024), Machine Zone (2017–2018), Sumo Logic (2015–2017) and Box (2013–2015), per the profile.
Trevor Armstrong
LinkedInExperience: Software Engineer · Character.ai
Software Engineer at Character.AI since May 2023, based in the Seattle area, per the role listing on the profile. Former Senior Staff Software Engineer at Cruise (2019–2023) and Software Engineer at Facebook (2015–2019), across three Facebook role entries shown on the profile.
Choose the right perspective
Match the person's area, such as backend services, consumer apps or product engineering, to your question, and check how long they have been at Character.AI. Their earlier employers can also help you find someone who has built systems at a scale like yours.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How do engineers at Character.AI build backend services for real-time AI chat at consumer scale?
- 02What engineering tradeoffs come with shipping a consumer app built on large language models?
- 03How should a team structure product engineering around fast-changing AI model capabilities?
Reaching Character.AI engineers
How can I contact one of these Character.AI engineers?
Pick one of the 10 people on this page and choose "Book a paid call", or describe your project to find others. You offer a fee for a 15-minute call or a written answer, Instant Expert finds the person's work email and sends the invitation, and they decide whether to accept. The list covers 1 company: Character.ai, based on profile data retrieved on October 8, 2026. Being listed here doesn't mean someone has agreed to take calls.
How much does it cost to reach Character.AI engineers?
You choose the offer, starting at $5 per person. It includes Instant Expert's 20% fee, so an offer that pays the person $100 costs you $125. You're charged only when the person books the call or sends the answer.
What if they don't reply?
You pay nothing. Instant Expert sends follow-up reminders, and if the person hasn't booked or answered within 7 days, the request expires and any hold on your card is released. You can invite several of the 10 people on this list at once and cap your total spend, so you pay only for the ones who accept.
Can an AI agent ask one of these Character.AI engineers a question?
Yes. An agent with a USDC wallet on Base can ask one question without an Instant Expert account. It names the person, for example by the LinkedIn URL on this page, and pays per ask over x402 (HTTP 402). The person answers in writing or by voice note, and if nobody answers within 7 days, the payment goes back to the wallet automatically. x402 docs
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot and may describe past or present roles. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.
Request a correction or removal