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Member of Technical Staff (Model Behavior)

Perplexity· AI Research & Systems
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Hybrid (San Francisco), Hybrid (Palo Alto)$200k - $330kFull-timePosted 2mo ago

About the role

Software engineer role focused on shaping Perplexity’s AI model behavior through prompt/context engineering, tool and memory design, and cross-domain experimentation to deliver high-quality user experiences.

Responsibilities

  • Context Engineering: Design, test, and optimize the prompts, skills, tools, and memory that shape Perplexity responses across products, features, and use cases. Build self-improvement loops to steer the prompt, improve tool/skill use, and improve the ability to draw on memory.
  • Model Releases: Help experiment with and release new models.
  • Research & Analysis: Identify inconsistencies and failure modes in model outputs through well-designed research projects, for both internal and production systems.
  • Knowledge Sharing: Help engineers across teams build intuition for prompt design and context engineering best practices.
  • Staying Current: Track the latest prompting, context engineering, and alignment techniques from industry and academia, and bring the best ideas back to the team.

Qualifications

  • 2 to 10+ years of experience in software engineering or research.
  • Strong background in software engineering fundamentals, and a technical understanding of LLM-driven and agentic systems.
  • Experience shaping LLM behavior through prompts, tool and skill design, or memory systems.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills, particularly in explaining complex concepts to diverse stakeholders.

Skills

Required:Software engineering fundamentalsLLM-driven systemsPrompt design and context engineeringCommunication

Benefits

  • USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.-based positions. International salaries are set based on the local market.
  • 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 30, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Perplexity

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