Senior Backend Software Engineer - API Platform

Details

Perplexity is looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join the API team building and securing high-performance APIs that power user-facing apps, third-party integrations, and enterprise solutions. The team focuses on reliability, scalability, and clear documentation to make Perplexity's intelligence and features accessible to developers and products worldwide.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, expand, and maintain APIs and services.
• Scope and lead large technical projects, laying the groundwork for early-stage products to iteratively evolve and scale.
• Collaborate with engineers across the company to determine when to leverage existing infrastructure versus building bespoke solutions.
• Align technical decisions with company strategic initiatives while advocating for needs specific to new API initiatives.
• Generalize specific customer requests and build features applicable to the broader user base.

Requirements

• Understand best practices for building and working with natural language / LLM APIs.
• Experience managing infrastructure for API products.
• Strong intuition for designing systems that will last and scale.
• Experience ensuring a great user experience and ease of use for features and products you build.
• 4+ years of engineering experience.

Compensation & Benefits

• Cash compensation range for this role: $180,000 - $300,000 per year.
• Compensation tier summary shown: $200K – $250K (offers equity).
• Equity may be part of the total compensation package.
• Benefits include comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance for you and your dependents, and a 401(k) plan.

Additional

• The role is listed as Hybrid (workplace type).