Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, AI Systems)

Apply; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity AI seeks a deeply technical software engineer to own and evolve its model serving platform, connecting our products and research systems with inference layers. This mission-critical service sits at the intersection of distributed systems, AI products, and infrastructure, enabling teams to adopt new models and ship reliable products.

You will design core abstractions, drive high-conviction technical decisions, and write production Rust and Python for a service handling hundreds of

Qualifications

• 5+ years building large-scale, reliable systems.
• Strong craft with focus on developer experience.
• Proficiency in Python, Rust, C++, or Go and cloud infra (AWS, Kubernetes).
• BS, MS or PhD in CS/Engineering or related field or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the model serving platform connecting products and research systems with inference layers.
• Design core abstractions and lead high-conviction technical decisions.
• Write production Rust and Python for a service handling hundreds of millions of model requests daily.

Skills

Distributed systems

Production-grade software

Backend development

System reliability

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS or related field

Tools

Python

Rust

C++

Go

AWS

Kubernetes

Job description

About Perplexity AI

In 2026, we launched Computer, the defining product for the new era of agentic AI. We’ve scaled beyond the millions of people using Perplexity every day for research, shopping, investing and curiosity into a new paradigm of using AI to transform knowledge into action.

As an engineer at Perplexity, your role will be to build products and systems that define how AI empowers humans to think, decide and act. You’ll ship fast and work between both product and infrastructure advancements in our technology.

Why Perplexity is different

• Craftsmanship. We build high quality, tasteful products targeting both the AI native and AI curious.

• Ownership. You identify the problem, design the solution and ship it.

• Entrepreneurship. We think like founders, act with urgency, and hustle to deliver for each other and our users.

• Scholarship. Work among highly talented peers, pursuing knowledge and truth, upleveling ourselves, our teams, and our products.

• Partnership. We amplify each others' strengths, break down silos, and give selflessly to help our colleagues deliver excellence.

About the Role

Perplexity is looking for a deeply technical software engineer to own and evolve our model serving platform, which is responsible for connecting our products and research systems with our inference layers. This mission-critical system gives teams one fast, reliable interface across providers.

You will work at the intersection of distributed systems, AI products, and infrastructure. You will make it dramatically easier for teams across Perplexity to adopt new models, run rigorous experiments, and ship dependable products.

The ideal candidate combines sound technical judgment forged in production systems with active curiosity around the rapidly changing capabilities and failure modes of frontier models. You will design core abstractions, lead high-conviction technical decisions, and write production Rust and Python for a service that serves hundreds of millions of model requests per day.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building and shipping large-scale systems and services with high reliability, availability, and performance.

• Strong software engineering craft, with special care for developer experience and designing future-proof systems that can evolve along with a rapidly advancing AI landscape.

• Proficiency with a general-purpose backend language (Python, Rust, C++, Go) and cloud infrastructure (AWS, Kubernetes).

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or related fields (or equivalent experience).