Backend Platform Engineer (AI)

Location: San Francisco, New York City, Palo Alto, or remote (International benefits provided for employees outside the U.S.)

Salary: $220K – $405K

Company

Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine building the future of information discovery.

What you will do

• Lead the design and implementation of a sandboxing platform for the safe execution of untrusted and user-generated code.
• Define and extend RBAC and authorization primitives to ensure scalability with enterprise controls.
• Own key backend services for authentication and encryption flows, partnering with Security and Infra on defense-in-depth.
• Drive 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.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship while making long-term architectural decisions to keep the foundation secure and evolvable.

Requirements

• 4+ years of experience designing and building production backend systems.
• Strong system design skills with a track record of creating efficient and scalable architectures.
• Hands-on experience with AWS, Kubernetes, and related cloud technologies.
• Proficiency in at least one backend language such as Python, Go, or Rust.
• Experience working in security-sensitive areas including authentication, authorization, and encryption.

Culture & Benefits

• Comprehensive U.S. benefits including equity, health, dental, vision, and retirement plans.
• Tailored international benefits program for employees residing outside the U.S.
• Additional U.S. perks such as fitness, commuter, and dependent care accounts.
• Competitive equity offers as part of the total compensation package.