Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Acceleration)
Used Tools & Technologies
Not specified
Required Skills & Competences
Tag name is followed by "@" symbol and proficiency level value.
About proficiency levels:
- 1-2 — basic awareness. Minimal hands-on experience, and a rudimentary understanding of the technology's purpose;
- 3-6 — daily use. Comfortable and regular usage, capable of handling common tasks and challenges related to the technology;
- 7-9 — you are an expert, you can teach others, you know all the pitfalls and tricks;
- 10 — exceptional knowledge, comprehensive understanding, and adeptness in all aspects of the technology, including advanced problem-solving. Think twice before claiming or demanding such level.
Go @ 5
TypeScript @ 5
Python @ 5
Leadership @ 3
Rust @ 5
CUDA @ 3
AI @ 3
- 1-2 — basic awareness. Minimal hands-on experience, and a rudimentary understanding of the technology's purpose;
- 3-6 — daily use. Comfortable and regular usage, capable of handling common tasks and challenges related to the technology;
- 7-9 — you are an expert, you can teach others, you know all the pitfalls and tricks;
- 10 — exceptional knowledge, comprehensive understanding, and adeptness in all aspects of the technology, including advanced problem-solving. Think twice before claiming or demanding such level.
Details
Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine built to serve the world’s curiosity with fast, trustworthy answers grounded in the live web and backed by clear citations. It combines multiple leading models with real-time search to synthesize up-to-date, source-linked responses instead of traditional search results. On top of this foundation, Perplexity is rolling out Computer, a general-purpose AI worker that can use software like a human to research, build, and execute end-to-end workflows for users.
About the Role
Perplexity is seeking creative, AI-pilled engineers to join the Acceleration team. The Acceleration team's mandate is to continually up-level the way the company and teams operate, delivering order-of-magnitude improvements in product and user experience. The role ensures the company makes the best use of AI tools and agents to multiply the leverage of lean, mission-focused teams. Perplexity uses AI tools across frontend and backend engineering, applied AI research, and business operations; the Acceleration team will lead software and process engineering to harness AI for maximum velocity.
This is an extremely technical and hands-on role. You will be expected to build both prototypes and production systems, and to reengineer codebases, infrastructure, processes, and anything else that must evolve to realize this vision.
Responsibilities
- Identify, prioritize, and execute on the highest-potential opportunities to accelerate Perplexity’s delivery cadence with frontier AI capabilities.
- Develop empathy for the nuances of technical and business teams’ work across disciplines and verticals, and collaborate with them to harness AI in new ways.
- Make codebases, systems, and knowledge stores legible to AI.
- Help the company triangulate toward the optimal point on the quality-velocity Pareto frontier while shifting that frontier outward with AI tools and agents.
- Keep abreast of new AI tools/models and make maximally effective use of them, setting an example across the company.
- Help the company make high-conviction bets on specific technologies where indecision is the default.
- Work with engineering leadership, recruiting, and others to instill an AI-forward culture and select for candidates who will thrive in such an environment.
Qualifications
- 5 to 15+ years of industry experience, ideally with a substantial portion focused on infrastructure/platform engineering or developer acceleration in environments featuring significant technical complexity.
- Daily use of AI models/tools, with strong intuition on their jagged frontiers.
- Proficiency with Python, plus experience and/or desire to learn Rust, TypeScript, Go, and other languages.
- Strong understanding of (and empathy for) the work of technical staff across disciplines, and enthusiasm to learn about business and operations teams.
- Broad working knowledge of the typical stacks used by AI product and applied research companies (for example: knowledge of what CUDA is and when/where/why it’s used is expected, even if you don’t hand-roll CUDA kernels).
- An obsession with improving the legibility of and reducing brittleness in both software and human-orchestrated processes.
- Experience navigating exploration-exploitation tradeoffs, balancing shipping today with building capacity for tomorrow.
If you’re excited about this role, Perplexity encourages you to apply even if your experience doesn’t match every qualification listed above.
Benefits
U.S. Benefits:
Full-time U.S. employees enjoy a comprehensive benefits program including equity, health, dental, vision, retirement, fitness, commuter and dependent care accounts, and more.
International Benefits:
Full-time employees outside the U.S. enjoy a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region of residence.
Note: USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.-based positions. International salaries are set based on the local market. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.