Staff Backend Software Engineer - Product Platform

Perplexity AI; Palo Alto, San Francisco, New York (CA, CA, NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI platform is seeking a talented Backend Software Engineer to join their Product Platform Team. The role involves designing and implementing robust backend services, ensuring system scalability and performance, while leveraging cloud technologies like AWS and Kubernetes. Candidates should have at least 4 years of experience and a strong proficiency in Python.

Benefits

Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) plan

Equity participation

Qualifications

• 4+ years of backend engineering experience.
• Strong system design skills and architecture creation.
• Hands-on experience with AWS and Kubernetes.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain backend services.
• Collaborate on scalable system architectures.
• Drive best engineering practices.

Skills

Python

System Design

AWS

Kubernetes

Job description

Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine founded in December 2022 and growing rapidly as one of the world’s leading AI platforms. Perplexity has raised over $1B in venture investment from some of the world’s most visionary and successful leaders, including Elad Gill, Daniel Gross, Jeff Bezos, Accel, IVP, NEA, Nvidia, Samsung, and many more. Our objective is to build accurate, trustworthy AI that powers decision-making for people and assistive AI wherever decisions are being made. Throughout human history, change and innovation have always been driven by curious people. Today, curious people use Perplexity to answer more than 780 million queries every month–a number that’s growing rapidly for one simple reason: everyone can be curious.

Perplexity is seeking a talented and experienced Backend Software Engineer to join our Product Platform Team. As a critical part of the team, you will be responsible for leading design, implementation, and scaling of systems that power our web and mobile products.

Our backend stack is Python, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Redis, and Kubernetes, built alongside dedicated in-house AI and search interfaces.

About the Team

The Product Platform Team plays a pivotal role in enabling the success of product engineers and the broader Perplexity ecosystem. Our mission is to:

• Develop foundational systems and tools that empower product teams to deliver with speed and confidence.
• Ensure the scalability, reliability, and performance of the core platform as we grow.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain robust backend services that serve as the backbone of our platform.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to create scalable and maintainable system architectures.
• Tackle complex infrastructure challenges, leveraging AWS services.
• Drive best practices in system design, coding standards, and engineering excellence.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of backend engineering experience in designing and building scalable systems.
• Strong system design skills, with the ability to create efficient, reliable, and scalable architectures.
• Hands-on experience with infrastructure tools, including AWS, Kubernetes, and related cloud technologies.
• Strong proficiency in Python.
• Collaborative mindset and eagerness to solve challenging technical problems.

Our cash compensation range for this role is $180,000 - $250,000.

Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including, experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.

Equity: In addition to the base salary, equity may be part of the total compensation package.

Benefits: Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance for you and your dependents. Includes a 401(k) plan.

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