Research Engineering Manager - Model Training

Details

Perplexity is seeking a Research Engineering Manager to lead a team of AI researchers and engineers responsible for developing the models that drive Perplexity products. The team builds models for agentic research, query understanding, and other domains that require accuracy and depth. As the user base and product surfaces expand, in-house models are critical to providing a premium experience for sophisticated users.

You will work with rich datasets of conversational and agentic queries and apply cutting-edge training techniques to scale AI model performance. Through hands-on technical and organizational leadership, you will enable your team to develop state-of-the-art models for business-relevant use cases.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of researchers and engineers focused on training state-of-the-art models for Perplexity-relevant use cases, leveraging supervised and reinforcement learning techniques.
• Drive research and engineering efforts to develop production models through advanced model training and alignment techniques, including RL, SFT, and related approaches.
• Become deeply familiar with the team’s technical stack and lead from the front through hands-on technical contributions.
• Own the data, training, and evaluation pipelines required to train and continuously improve large language models.
• Design and iterate on model training and fine-tuning algorithms (e.g., preference-based methods, reinforcement learning from human or AI feedback) with a balance of scientific rigor and iteration velocity.
• Design evaluations and improve the production model training pipeline to reliably deliver models on the Pareto frontier of speed and quality.
• Collaborate closely with engineering teams to integrate in-house models into product and rapidly iterate based on real-world usage.
• Manage day-to-day execution, project planning, and prioritization for the model training team to meet ambitious quality and performance goals.

Requirements

• Proven experience with large-scale large language models (LLMs) and deep learning systems.
• Strong Python and PyTorch skills; versatility across languages and frameworks is a plus.
• Experience leading or managing research or engineering teams working on large-scale AI model development, including driving complex projects from idea to production.
• Self-starter with a willingness to take ownership and navigate ambiguity in a fast-moving environment.
• Passion for tackling problems in AI model quality, speed, safety, and reliability.
• 10+ years of technical experience, with at least 2 years as a manager and at least 4 years working on large-scale AI model development.

Nice-to-have

• PhD in machine learning or related areas.
• Experience training very large Transformer-based models with techniques such as SFT, DPO, GRPO, RLHF-style methods, or related preference-based optimization approaches.
• Prior experience designing evaluations and production training pipelines for large-scale models in a high-growth environment.

Benefits

• Full-time U.S. employees receive a comprehensive benefits program including equity, health, dental, vision, retirement, fitness, commuter and dependent care accounts, and more.
• Full-time employees outside the U.S. receive a 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. The role offers equity.