Cloud Security Engineer

Perplexity AI, Inc.

Job Overview

Location

Remote

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• As a Cloud Security Engineer at Perplexity, you will be at the forefront of safeguarding our cutting-edge search and internet interaction platform. This is a critical, hands-on role where you will architect, implement, and manage robust security measures across our cloud infrastructure, ensuring that innovation can flourish securely and at scale. You will be instrumental in embedding security best practices into the very fabric of our engineering workflows, championing a secure-by-default mindset across all teams.
• Your primary responsibility will involve close collaboration with our infrastructure and engineering teams. You will partner to integrate security seamlessly into development lifecycles, promoting the adoption of secure coding practices and architectural patterns. This includes designing and building secure, reusable Terraform modules that incorporate essential security guardrails from the outset. These modules will enforce critical controls such as comprehensive logging, robust encryption mechanisms, and automated threat detection enablement, minimizing the attack surface and reducing manual security overhead.
• A significant part of your role will focus on deploying and managing advanced cloud-native detection capabilities. You will leverage services like AWS GuardDuty and Security Hub, alongside custom detection rules, to proactively identify and alert on potential security threats. This proactive stance is crucial for detecting sophisticated attacks such as credential compromise, unauthorized crypto-mining activities, and malicious lateral movement within our cloud environments.
• Maintaining compliance with stringent security standards like SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 will be a key objective. You will achieve this by developing and implementing automated processes for collecting cloud control evidence. This automation ensures continuous monitoring and provides auditable proof of our security posture, streamlining compliance efforts and reducing the burden of manual audits.
• You will conduct regular, in-depth security audits of our cloud resource configurations. Utilizing tools such as AWS Config and Open Policy Agent (OPA), you will identify any deviations from established security benchmarks, including CIS Benchmarks, and our own internal security policies. Crucially, you will also be responsible for remediating these deviations, ensuring our infrastructure remains hardened and compliant.
• Securing our CI/CD and supply chain pipelines is paramount. You will implement and enforce controls designed to protect our software delivery process, including artifact signing to ensure integrity, secret scanning to prevent exposure of sensitive credentials, and dependency monitoring to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in third-party libraries.
• Applying Zero Trust principles will be a core tenet of your work. You will design and implement strict network segmentation strategies, enforce robust authentication and authorization mechanisms, and ensure that access controls are granular and context-aware across all our cloud environments. This approach minimizes the blast radius of any potential breach.
• You will actively participate in the security on-call rotation. This involves responding promptly and effectively to security alerts and incidents, performing initial triage, and working towards rapid mitigation and thorough root cause analysis. Your swift actions will be vital in minimizing the impact of security events and preventing recurrence.
• This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the security posture of a rapidly growing, innovative technology company. You will have the autonomy to implement your vision for cloud security, working with modern technologies and contributing directly to the company's success and the safety of its users.
• You will also contribute to security architecture reviews, providing expert guidance on the security implications of new features and infrastructure changes. Your insights will help guide the engineering teams towards building secure and resilient systems from the ground up.
• Furthermore, you will stay abreast of the latest threats, vulnerabilities, and security technologies, continuously evaluating and recommending improvements to our security stack and processes. This includes exploring and integrating new security tools and services that can enhance our overall security posture.
• The role demands a proactive, analytical, and collaborative approach. You will be a trusted advisor to engineering teams, fostering a strong security culture and empowering them to build secure products. Your ability to communicate complex security concepts clearly and concisely to both technical and non-technical audiences will be essential.
• You will contribute to the development and maintenance of security documentation, playbooks, and runbooks, ensuring that our security operations are well-defined and repeatable.
• Ultimately, your work will directly impact the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of Perplexity's services, protecting our users and our intellectual property.

🎯 Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in Cloud Infrastructure, Platform Engineering, or similar roles, with a significant focus on security.
• Proven track record of building, scaling, and securing cloud infrastructure in high-growth technology companies.
• Deep understanding of cloud-native architectures, microservices, and distributed systems, with a strong emphasis on security implications.
• Extensive experience securing CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and internal tooling, including artifact signing, secret scanning, and dependency management.
• Strong programming skills in Python, Go, or similar languages, essential for automation and tool development.

🏖️ Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity package.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Generous paid time off and holidays.
• Remote work flexibility.
• Opportunity to work with a talented and passionate team on a groundbreaking product.
• Professional development and learning opportunities.

Skills & Technologies

Python

AWS

Terraform

Remote

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Perplexity AI, Inc.

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About Perplexity AI, Inc.

Perplexity AI operates an AI-powered conversational search engine that answers queries by synthesizing live web information. The platform combines large language models with real-time retrieval, citing sources for transparency. Founded in 2022, the San Francisco-based company offers free and subscription tiers, mobile apps, and browser extensions, targeting consumers and enterprises seeking accurate, verifiable answers instead of traditional link lists.

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