Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Applied AI)
Perplexity·Palo Alto, California, United States | New York, New York, United States | San Francisco, California, United States$220K - $405K·posted 331d ago · last seen 24m agoTrack this application
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Get Started FreeAbout interviewing at Perplexity
One of the few AI startups with a fully published interview guide (perplexity.ai/hub/careers/interview-guide): online application (response within two weeks) → recruiter phone screen → a technical screen that for engineers is 'usually a standard technical programming interview' → a quickly-scheduled onsite of 4–5 interviews including a hiring-manager deep dive on past work and experience anecdotes → a final interview with a Perplexity founder or leader → decision within a week of the onsite. Coding leans Python and mixes LeetCode medium–hard with practical search-flavored tasks (ranking/filtering, concurrency, data handling); system design is AI-native (RAG pipelines, retrieval at scale, LLM serving cost/latency). Applicants are judged 'solely on merit and potential impact' and must show 'frontier knowledge and excellence in at least one area'; roles are broad by default with team matching happening during the onsite, every role — managers included — is hands-on, and building AI products isn't expected but fluency in using AI tools is required. In-person 4 days/week near an office; remote is case-by-case.
Read the full Perplexity interview process →Description
Perplexity is looking for an Applied AI Engineer to design, build, and iterate on cutting-edge agents powering our core experience in Perplexity Computer. Working in this mission critical team, you will develop frontier context layer applications - fulfilling the curiosity of millions of users across the globe.
Key Responsibilities
Apply state-of-the-art ML and LLM techniques to solve problems spanning:
Personalization (LLM memory, context summarization, retrieval and ranking);
Contextual recommendations and Monetization applications
Build frontier agent capabilities on top of Perplexity Computer
Build auto research harness for both offline and online techniques, designing experiments and metrics that provide deep insight into quality and impact.
Own the entire model lifecycle from research to production: data analysis, modeling, evaluation, offline/online A/B testing, and iterative improvement and build autonomous harness for agent squad to explore different problem spaces.
Collaborate cross-functionally with engineers, PMs, data scientists, and designers to ensure our AI drives meaningful product improvements.
Stay at the forefront of ML/AI innovation by evaluating and incorporating emerging research and algorithms into the product lifecycle.
Preferred Qualifications
5+ years experience building and shipping robust AI products for large-scale, user-facing or data-driven products.
Strong software engineering skills (Python, production-quality codebases, collaborative development) and experience using agentic coding tools for large scale parallel developments.
In-depth experience with the full AI lifecycle: data analysis, rigorous evaluation, and ongoing monitoring/improvement.
Proven collaborator and communicator; excels in high-velocity, cross-functional teams.
Curious, driven by end-user/product impact, and passionate about advancing the state of applied ML and AI.
BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
Bonus Points For
Experience with LLM context engineering or harness engineering.
Experience in mid-training or post-training frontier open source models
Experience in large scale user-centric and content-centric personalization challenges (user modeling, retrieval, content ranking, etc).
Salary Range: $220K - $405K
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