Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Monetization)

Perplexity; California (MO); On-site; USD 120,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity is seeking a monetization engineer to own the billing platform powering Computer and related paid experiences. You will design, implement, and operate subscriptions, invoicing, and usage-based billing for millions of users across consumer and enterprise plans.

You will lead features end-to-end from problem definition to design and launch, collaborate with Finance, Data Science, Growth, Security, Support, and GTM teams, and push for reliable, auditable billing data and broader payment

Qualifications

• 4+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Direct experience building or scaling billing, payments, subscription, or monetization systems.
• Deep familiarity with payment processors (Stripe, Square, etc.), including subscriptions, invoicing, disputes, refunds, and webhooks.
• Demonstrated experience and appetite for building in-house billing solutions that rival leading best-in-class buy options.
• Strong backend engineering skills in Python with the ability to reason about complex distributed systems.
• Experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL) and making data-informed decisions to prioritize work.
• Strong product judgment, you translate user and stakeholder problems into simple, effective technical solutions.
• Self-motivated with strong ownership instincts, you ship major features ahead of schedule and drive improvements without asking for permission.
• Track record of cross-functional collaboration with Finance, Support, or Growth stakeholders.
• Genuine interest and adoption of AI products and willingness to learn quickly.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own the billing platform and monetization systems that power Computer and every paid experience across Perplexity.
• Lead features end-to-end, from problem definition through technical design, implementation, and launch, including the billing API abstractions that let product teams ship new SKUs, pricing models, and monetization experiments with minimal friction.
• Build and operate the subscription, invoicing, and usage-based billing systems that serve millions of users across consumer and enterprise plans.
• Hill-climb on reliability: tiered SLOs organized by customer impact, proactive monitoring, and alerting to catch revenue-affecting issues before customers do.
• Partner closely with Finance, Data Science, Growth, Security, Support, and go-to-market teams to keep billing data accurate, auditable, and compliant, and to expand payment method coverage and optimize authorization rates globally.
• Build internal tooling that empowers Support and Finance to diagnose and resolve billing issues quickly.

Skills

Software engineering

Billing systems

Payments integration

Python backend

PostgreSQL

System design

Cross-functional collaboration

Ownership mindset

AI product interest

Stripe APIs

Tools

Stripe APIs

PostgreSQL

AWS

Docker

Job description

In 2026, we launched Computer, the defining product for the new era of agentic AI. Millions of people now use Perplexity to transform knowledge into action, and every action an agent takes is metered, budgeted, and settled through the billing platform this role owns.

As a monetization engineer at Perplexity, you'll own the abstractions that let product teams ship new SKUs, run pricing experiments, and convert users into paying customers, without needing to understand billing internals. The usage-based billing system this team owns is foundational to Perplexity Computer and our agentic products: metering every agent action in real time, enforcing credit budgets, and settling costs across entirely new interaction models. You'll work across subscriptions, usage-based billing, and enterprise contracts to ensure every revenue path is reliable, observable, and easy to extend.

Tech Stack: Python | Go | Stripe | PostgreSQL | AWS | Docker

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.

What you'll do

• Design, build, and own the billing platform and monetization systems that power Computer and every paid experience across Perplexity.

• Lead features end-to-end, from problem definition through technical design, implementation, and launch, including the billing API abstractions that let product teams ship new SKUs, pricing models, and monetization experiments with minimal friction.

• Build and operate the subscription, invoicing, and usage-based billing systems that serve millions of users across consumer and enterprise plans.

• Hill-climb on reliability: tiered SLOs organized by customer impact, proactive monitoring, and alerting to catch revenue-affecting issues before customers do.

• Partner closely with Finance, Data Science, Growth, Security, Support, and go-to-market teams to keep billing data accurate, auditable, and compliant, and to expand payment method coverage and optimize authorization rates globally.

• Build internal tooling that empowers Support and Finance to diagnose and resolve billing issues quickly.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of professional software engineering experience.

• Direct experience building or scaling billing, payments, subscription, or monetization systems.

• Deep familiarity with payment processors (Stripe, Square, etc.), including subscriptions, invoicing, disputes, refunds, and webhooks.

• Demonstrated experience and appetite for building in-house billing solutions that rival leading best-in-class buy options.

• Strong backend engineering skills in Python with the ability to reason about complex distributed systems.

• Experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL) and making data-informed decisions to prioritize work.

• Strong product judgment, you translate user and stakeholder problems into simple, effective technical solutions.

• Self-motivated with strong ownership instincts, you ship major features ahead of schedule and drive improvements without asking for permission.

• Track record of cross-functional collaboration with Finance, Support, or Growth stakeholders.

• Genuine interest and adoption of AI products and willingness to learn quickly.

Nice to have

• 2+ years of hands-on experience with the Stripe APIs and SDKs.

• Experience with usage-based or metered billing models, especially metering agent actions, tokens, or other non-traditional units.

• Experience with Apple and Google Play in-app purchase billing.

• Familiarity with growth experimentation and PLG/self-serve SaaS monetization.

• Experience building platform constructs that support pricing experiments and A/B testing.

• Full-stack experience (our frontend is Next.js/React/TypeScript).

• Experience in a regulatory or compliance-heavy billing environment.

• Time spent at a fast-growing startup or on a high-ownership engineering team.