Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure)
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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
About the Role
The Cloud Infrastructure team owns the foundational cloud primitives and deployment models that power Perplexity's products, from multi-tenant public cloud to single-tenant and on-premises solutions for enterprise customers.
As Perplexity grows its Computer and Enterprise products, this team builds and operates the security, isolation, and compliance layers that customers depend on. We provide the deployment topologies, multi‑region infrastructure, and core services that enable Perplexity to run reliably and efficiently for both consumer traffic and large enterprises.
Key Responsibilities
Own the roadmap and technical strategy for agent-driven cloud infrastructure management.
Design and operate Perplexity’s cloud networking fabric, including VPC architectures, private connectivity, and peering with hyperscalers and neocloud providers to support low-latency, high-throughput AI workloads.
Architect and scale compute platforms (Kubernetes/EKS, autoscaling groups, and mixed CPU/GPU fleets) to efficiently serve online request traffic and background workloads across regions.
Build and maintain secure, isolated deployment topologies for multi-tenant, single-tenant, and customer‑owned cloud (BYOC) environments, including cross-account networking, identity, and policy guardrails.
Implement and evolve multi-region strategies for availability, failover, and data locality, including traffic routing, regional capacity planning, and disaster recovery playbooks.
Partner with security to deliver enterprise controls such as BYOK/KMS integrations, network isolation, and auditability required for regulated customers.
Develop automation, tooling, and runbooks that make day‑2 operations (provisioning, upgrades, incident response) predictable and repeatable for Perplexity products across all environments.
Qualifications
Deep experience designing and operating cloud infrastructure on AWS (VPC design, routing, security groups, load balancing, private connectivity).
Strong background with Kubernetes/EKS and container orchestration, including multi‑cluster, multi‑region, or multi‑account setups.
Hands-on experience with cloud networking and peering (VPC peering, Transit Gateway, private link/service endpoints, or similar constructs in neoclouds).
Experience building or operating secure, isolated environments for enterprise customers (single‑tenant, BYOC, or on‑prem), ideally including BYOK/KMS integrations and compliance constraints.
Proficiency with infrastructure as code (Terraform) and strong software engineering skills in at least one of Python, Go, or Rust for automation and tooling.
Strong debugging and incident management skills across distributed systems (networking, compute, and platform layers), with a track record of driving root‑cause analysis and long‑term fixes.
7+ years of industry experience building and operating production cloud infrastructure, including leading the design of complex systems or migrations.
If you’re excited about this role, we encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn’t match every qualification listed above.
Salary Range: $220K - $405K