Staff Engineer, AI Model-Serving Platform

Perplexity; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 220,000 - 405,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity AI is seeking a deeply technical software engineer to own and evolve our model serving platform, connecting products and research systems to inference layers.

You will work at the intersection of distributed systems, AI products, and infrastructure, designing core abstractions and delivering production Rust and Python in a service handling hundreds of millions of requests daily.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building and shipping large-scale systems with high reliability.
• Proficiency with backend languages (Python, Rust, C++, Go) and cloud infra (AWS, Kubernetes).
• BS, MS, or PhD in CS/Engineering or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

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

Skills

Distributed systems

Backend engineering

Rust/Python proficiency

Cloud infrastructure

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS/Engineering

Tools

Python

Rust

C++

Go

AWS

Kubernetes

Job description

Perplexity AI is seeking a deeply technical software engineer to own and evolve our model serving platform, connecting products and research systems to inference layers.

You will work at the intersection of distributed systems, AI products, and infrastructure, designing core abstractions and delivering production Rust and Python in a service handling hundreds of millions of requests daily.