Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Applied AI)

at Perplexity AI

📍 New York City, United States
📍 Palo Alto, United States
📍 San Francisco, United States

USD 220,000-405,000 per year

MIDDLE

✅ On-site

Tech Stack
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.

A/B Testing AI @ 3 Algorithms Communication @ 3 Data Analysis @ 3 LLM @ 3 Machine Learning @ 3 Python @ 6

Details

Perplexity is looking for an Applied AI Engineer to design, build, and iterate on cutting-edge agents powering the core experience in Perplexity Computer. Working on this mission-critical team, you will develop frontier context-layer applications serving millions of users worldwide.

Responsibilities

Apply state-of-the-art machine learning and large language model techniques to problems involving:
- Personalization, including LLM memory, context summarization, retrieval, and ranking.
- Contextual recommendations and monetization applications.
- Frontier agent capabilities built on Perplexity Computer.
Build an auto-research harness using offline and online techniques, designing experiments and metrics that provide deep insight into quality and impact.
Own the entire model lifecycle from research through production, including data analysis, modeling, evaluation, offline and online A/B testing, iterative improvement, and building an autonomous harness for agent squads to explore different problem spaces.
Collaborate cross-functionally with engineers, product managers, data scientists, and designers to ensure AI drives meaningful product improvements.
Evaluate and incorporate emerging machine learning and artificial intelligence research and algorithms into the product lifecycle.

Requirements

5+ years of experience building and shipping robust AI products for large-scale, user-facing, or data-driven products.
Strong software engineering skills, including Python, production-quality codebases, collaborative development, and experience using agentic coding tools for large-scale parallel development.
In-depth experience with the full AI lifecycle, including data analysis, rigorous evaluation, and ongoing monitoring and improvement.
Proven collaboration and communication skills in high-velocity, cross-functional teams.
Curiosity, a focus on end-user and product impact, and passion for advancing applied machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Bachelor's, master's, or PhD in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Bonus Qualifications

Experience with LLM context engineering or harness engineering.
Experience with mid-training or post-training frontier open-source models.
Experience with large-scale, user-centric, and content-centric personalization challenges, including user modeling, retrieval, and content ranking.

Benefits

Full-time U.S. employees receive a comprehensive benefits program including equity, health, dental, vision, retirement, fitness, commuter, and dependent care accounts. Full-time employees outside the U.S. receive a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region of residence. 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 listed amounts.