Search Machine Learning Research Engineer

📋 Description

• • Join Perplexity, a rapidly growing AI company at the forefront of revolutionizing information discovery, as a Senior Machine Learning Research Engineer. We are on a mission to build the next generation of advanced search technologies, and your expertise will be pivotal in shaping the future of how people access and understand information.
• • In this critical role, you will be instrumental in driving significant advancements in search quality, leveraging cutting-edge machine learning techniques. Your primary focus will be on the intricate domains of retrieval and ranking, ensuring that our users receive the most relevant, accurate, and comprehensive answers to their queries.
• • You will relentlessly push the boundaries of search quality forward. This isn't just about incremental improvements; it's about fundamental breakthroughs. You will achieve this through the development and implementation of novel models, the strategic utilization of data, the creation of sophisticated tools, and by identifying and exploiting any other leverage available within our ecosystem.
• • A core part of your responsibility will be to architect and build the foundational components of our search platform and model stack. This involves designing systems that are not only powerful and efficient but also scalable to handle the immense volume of data and user interactions.
• • You will be deeply involved in the design, training, and optimization of large-scale deep learning models. This includes working with state-of-the-art frameworks like PyTorch, and mastering distributed training techniques (e.g., PyTorch Distributed, DeepSpeed, FSDP) to harness the power of modern hardware acceleration.
• • Your expertise will be particularly crucial in developing and refining retrieval and ranking models. This involves understanding the nuances of how to effectively fetch relevant documents and how to order them to provide the best possible user experience.
• • Conduct advanced research in representation learning is a key aspect of this role. You will explore and innovate in areas such as contrastive learning, multilingual modeling, and multimodal modeling, specifically tailoring these techniques for the unique challenges of search and retrieval applications.
• • You will be responsible for deploying a diverse range of models, from traditional boosting algorithms to the latest Large Language Models (LLMs), ensuring they are deployed in a scalable, performant, and reliable manner within our production environment.
• • A significant part of your work will involve building and optimizing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines. This is essential for grounding our AI's responses in factual information and ensuring the accuracy and trustworthiness of the generated answers.
• • Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including Data Scientists, AI Engineers, Infrastructure Engineers, and Product Managers. This collaborative approach is vital for ensuring the fast, high-quality delivery of innovative search features and improvements.
• • You will contribute to the entire lifecycle of machine learning models, from initial research and experimentation to development, deployment, and ongoing monitoring and improvement.
• • Analyze and interpret complex search quality metrics and evaluation principles to guide model development and identify areas for improvement.
• • Stay abreast of the latest research and industry trends in machine learning, information retrieval, and natural language processing, bringing fresh ideas and perspectives to the team.
• • Contribute to the technical vision and strategy for Perplexity's search technology, influencing the direction of our product and research efforts.
• • Mentor junior engineers and contribute to a culture of learning and technical excellence within the team.
• • This role offers a unique opportunity to make a tangible impact on a product used by millions, directly influencing how the world accesses information.