← All roles

Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Backend Platform)

Perplexity· Platform & Infrastructure
Apply on company site
San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City$220k - $405kFull-timePosted 4mo ago

About the role

Backend Platform role focused on building and maintaining critical infrastructure for Perplexity, including authentication, authorization, real-time data flows, service orchestration, sandboxing, and security-focused backend systems; aims to ensure reliability, scalability, and secure user experiences while enabling product and AI teams to innovate quickly.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the design and implementation of our sandboxing platform to safely execute untrusted and user‑generated code while meeting strict performance and reliability requirements.
  • Define and extend our RBAC and authorization primitives, ensuring they scale with new product capabilities and enterprise controls.
  • Own key backend services involved in authentication and encryption flows (including BYOK‑related pieces), partnering with Security and Infra on defense‑in‑depth.
  • Set the technical bar for backend platform design and operations, driving best practices in reliability, observability, and incident response for always‑on systems.
  • Partner with product and AI teams to define clear platform interfaces, SLAs, and integration patterns so new features can reliably build on shared backend capabilities.
  • Provide technical leadership across the backend platform area, mentoring other engineers and making long‑term architectural decisions that keep the foundation simple, secure, and evolvable.

Qualifications

  • Experience designing and building backend systems that run in production (typically 4+ years for mid-level, more for senior and staff).
  • Strong system design skills, with a track record of creating efficient, reliable, and scalable architectures.
  • Hands-on experience with modern infrastructure (for example AWS, Kubernetes, and related cloud technologies).
  • Strong proficiency in at least one backend language such as Python, Go, or Rust, and the ability to work effectively in a multi-language environment.
  • Collaborative mindset and eagerness to solve challenging technical problems with other experienced engineers.
  • Comfort working in security‑sensitive areas (auth, authorization, encryption) and making pragmatic trade-offs between safety, simplicity, and velocity.

Skills

Required:Backend system designProduction backend developmentInfrastructure technologiesSecurity (auth, authorization, encryption)

Benefits

  • Full-time U.S. employees enjoy a comprehensive benefits program including equity, health, dental, vision, retirement, fitness, commuter and dependent care accounts, and more.
  • International Benefits: Full-time employees outside the U.S. enjoy a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region of residence.
Last updated Sep 2, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Perplexity

ai-plg-top-20brex-fastest-growing-2025liquid-ai-recruiting-targetsetter-30setter-30-2026-q1
Company profileWebsite

More open roles at Perplexity