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Member of Technical Staff (Secure Intelligence Institute)

Perplexity· AI Research & Systems
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San Francisco$220k - $405kFull-timePosted 3mo ago

About the role

Researcher/engineer role focused on security and privacy within Perplexity's Secure Intelligence Institute, translating frontier AI security advances into practical, shipped system improvements and contributing to the broader security research community.

Responsibilities

  • Develop threat models for emerging attack surfaces in AI-native products, including browser, search, and autonomous agents.
  • Identify and analyze security and privacy threats across AI systems, infrastructure, and user-facing products.
  • Develop novel defenses, mitigations, and detection mechanisms for security and privacy in AI-native products.
  • Build security evaluation frameworks, benchmarks, and datasets to measure the effectiveness of different defense mechanisms.
  • Partner with Perplexity’s Security Engineering team to translate state of the art research into shipped security features and hardened system architectures.
  • Collaborate with top-tier academic and industry researchers in SII's external research network.
  • Publish findings at premier venues and contribute to the broader security research community.

Qualifications

  • Hold a PhD (or equivalent research experience) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, with a primary focus on security and/or privacy.
  • Experience publishing at top security conferences (IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, ACM CCS, NDSS) demonstrating original, impactful research contributions.
  • Deep expertise in one or more of: security of agentic systems, systems security, web and applications security, program analysis, and software security.
  • Proficiency in Python (bonus points for TypeScript, Go, and/or Rust).
  • Ability to operate with high independence, willing to dive in and take ownership, and comfortable in a fast-paced environment where research directly informs product.
  • Clear and concise communication, translating complex attack narratives into actionable insights for engineering and leadership.

Skills

Required:PhD or equivalent research experience in security/privacySecurity conference publicationPython
Nice to have:TypeScript/Go/Rust

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: comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region of residence.
Last updated Sep 9, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Perplexity

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