Software Engineer - Acceleration

Perplexity AI, Inc.

Job Overview

Location

Remote

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• Are you a visionary engineer with a passion for artificial intelligence and a knack for optimizing complex systems? Perplexity is on the cusp of revolutionizing how the world accesses and interacts with information, and we're looking for exceptional talent to join our groundbreaking Acceleration team. This is a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of AI-driven innovation, shaping the future of how a leading technology company operates and delivers value.
• The core mission of the Acceleration team is to fundamentally elevate Perplexity's operational efficiency and product delivery capabilities. We aim to achieve order-of-magnitude improvements by leveraging the most advanced AI tools and agents available. Just as Perplexity is pioneering an agentic future for the internet, your role will be instrumental in ensuring our company maximizes its leverage through AI, empowering our lean, mission-focused teams to achieve unprecedented velocity and impact.
• In today's landscape, Perplexity already integrates AI across its entire workflow, from frontend and backend engineering to cutting-edge applied AI research and essential business operations. As AI technology continues its rapid evolution, becoming even more sophisticated and capable, the Acceleration team will spearhead both software and process engineering initiatives. Your work will be critical in harnessing these advancements to ensure Perplexity operates at peak performance and delivers exceptional user experiences.
• The ideal candidate will bring a robust technical judgment, honed through experience at internet-scale companies, combined with an insatiable curiosity and daily engagement with the latest AI models and tools. You'll possess a capacious imagination, capable of reimagining how work is accomplished within leading technology organizations. This role is inherently hybrid, blending aspects of AI product development, sophisticated infrastructure platform engineering, enhancing developer experience, and driving operational excellence.
• Your responsibilities will be diverse and impactful. You will be tasked with identifying, prioritizing, and executing on the highest-potential opportunities to significantly accelerate Perplexity's delivery cadence by integrating frontier AI capabilities. This involves developing a deep empathy for the intricate workflows and challenges faced by our technical and business teams across various disciplines and verticals, enabling you to collaborate effectively and unlock new ways to harness AI.
• A key aspect of your role will be to make our extensive codebases, complex systems, and vast knowledge stores readily interpretable and actionable by AI. You will play a pivotal role in helping the company strike the optimal balance between quality and velocity, continuously pushing the boundaries of what's possible with AI-powered tools and agents.
• You will be expected to stay at the cutting edge of AI tool and model development, integrating them seamlessly into your own work and setting a powerful example for the rest of the company. Your proactive adoption and innovative application of these technologies will inspire colleagues across Perplexity to embrace AI-driven enhancements.
• Furthermore, you will guide the company in making high-conviction strategic decisions regarding specific technologies, particularly in areas where the temptation for indecision might be high. This requires a blend of technical foresight and decisive action.
• Collaborating closely with engineering leadership, recruiting, and other key stakeholders, you will help cultivate and reinforce an AI-forward culture at Perplexity. This includes actively participating in the selection process to ensure we attract and retain individuals who will not only thrive but also contribute significantly to this forward-thinking environment.
• It is crucial to understand that this is an exceptionally technical and hands-on role. While a strong vision and creative thinking are indispensable, they are not sufficient on their own. You will be expected to not only conceptualize but also to build and deploy both prototypes and robust production systems. This includes the potential to reengineer our codebases, infrastructure, processes, and any other element necessary to bring this ambitious vision to fruition and maintain Perplexity's position at the vanguard of technological innovation.

🎯 Requirements

• 4 to 20 years of industry experience, with a significant portion focused on infrastructure platform engineering or developer acceleration in technically complex environments.
• Daily, hands-on use of AI models and tools, coupled with a strong intuition for their current capabilities and limitations.
• Proficiency in Python, with experience or a strong desire to learn languages such as Rust, TypeScript, and Go.
• Deep understanding of and empathy for the work performed by technical staff across various disciplines, alongside an eagerness to learn about business and operations functions.
• Broad working knowledge of typical technology stacks used in AI product and applied research companies (e.g., understanding CUDA's purpose and application without necessarily needing to hand-roll kernels).
• An obsession with improving the legibility and reducing the brittleness of both software systems and human-orchestrated processes.
• Proven experience navigating exploration-exploitation trade-offs, effectively balancing immediate delivery needs with long-term capacity building.

🏖️ 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 cutting-edge AI technologies and shape the future of information access.
• Professional development and learning opportunities.

Skills & Technologies

Python

TypeScript

Rust

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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