Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Infrastructure)

Perplexity AI; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity AI is seeking a senior infrastructure engineer to design, build, and operate the foundational systems behind our products. You will own cross-cutting infrastructure spanning compute, storage, networking, and data, while improving performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency.

You will lead technical direction across teams, shape infrastructure strategy, and mentor peers. If you thrive on multi-domain challenges and cross-cutting problems, apply here to be considered across the

Qualifications

• Proven ability to set technical direction and raise engineering bar.
• Track record of owning complex production systems end to end.
• Strong software engineering skills in Python or other systems/backend languages like Go, Rust, C++, or Java.
• Ability to develop depth quickly in unfamiliar systems and drive production incidents to durable resolution.
• Experience across at least two infrastructure domains such as cloud platforms, distributed systems, Kubernetes, storage, databases, networking, data systems, or production reliability.

Responsibilities

• Own cross-cutting infra problems spanning compute, storage, networking and data.
• Design, build, and operate distributed infrastructure for production workloads.
• Identify gaps between platforms and build shared abstractions and tooling.
• Improve system performance, availability, scalability and cost-efficiency.
• Debug complex production issues across service and infrastructure boundaries and implement durable architectural improvements.
• Set technical direction for complex infrastructure systems and lead high-impact programs with multiple teams.

Skills

Python

Go

Rust

C++

Java

Distributed systems

Kubernetes

Cloud platforms

Data storage

Production reliability

Job description

• The Infrastructure team builds and operates the foundational systems behind Perplexity’s products. At Perplexity, infrastructure sits on the critical path of every answer, supporting real-time search, retrieval, model serving, and agent workloads where latency, reliability, and rapid iteration directly shape the user experience
• This role is for strong infrastructure engineers whose experience spans multiple domains and who are energized by cross-cutting problems that do not fit neatly within a single platform team
• You do not need to be a specialist in every area. Scope ranges from owning major production systems to setting technical direction across teams, leading complex infrastructure programs, and shaping infrastructure strategy across the organization
• If a specialized Cloud Infrastructure, Storage Platform, Backend Platform, Data Platform, Connector Platform, or AI Acceleration role clearly matches your expertise and interests, apply directly to it. If your experience spans several infrastructure domains or you are most energized by cross-cutting systems problems, apply here. Submit one application, and we will consider you across the Infrastructure organization
• Own cross-cutting infrastructure problems that span compute, storage, networking, data, deployment, and reliability, including eliminating bottlenecks across retrieval and serving paths, building shared abstractions across deployment environments, and resolving failure modes that cross platform boundaries
• Design, build, and operate distributed infrastructure supporting Perplexity’s consumer, AI, and enterprise workloads, owning systems from architecture through production operation
• Identify gaps between existing platforms and build shared abstractions, automation, and tooling that make infrastructure easier and safer to use
• Improve system performance, availability, scalability, and cost-efficiency across online request traffic and background workloads
• Debug complex production issues across service and infrastructure boundaries, then turn the findings into durable architectural improvements
• Set technical direction for complex infrastructure systems, lead high-impact programs across teams, and establish durable technical standards through collaboration with infrastructure, product, AI, and security partners

Demonstrated ability to set technical direction, lead through influence, and raise the engineering bar through architecture, design reviews, and mentorshipA track record of owning complex production systems end to end and delivering sustained technical impact across teamsStrong software engineering skills in Python or other systems or backend languages such as Go, Rust, C++, or JavaAbility to develop depth quickly in unfamiliar systems, reason across software and infrastructure layers, and drive production incidents from diagnosis through durable resolutionMeaningful experience across at least two infrastructure domains, such as cloud platforms, distributed systems, Kubernetes, storage, databases, networking, data systems, developer infrastructure, or production reliability4+ years of professional software engineering experience building and operating production backend, platform, or distributed systems