Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Training Infrastructure)
At a glance
Senior Software Engineering role at Perplexity. San Francisco · full-time · $220,000–$405,000 base.
techroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build distributed systems that coordinate AI workloads across large-scale computing infrastructure
- Create interfaces for people and agents to design, manage, and launch experiments
- Develop tools that make experiment outcomes understandable and support retrospectives and automated research loops
- Improve reinforcement-learning and agent-evaluation platforms used to train models and refine agent systems
What you bring
- At least two years building and shipping reliable, scalable systems for compute-heavy workloads
- You can develop backend software in Python, Rust, C++ or Go, and have worked with cloud infrastructure and container orchestration
- You have familiarity with reinforcement learning, agent evaluation or machine-learning infrastructure
- A computer science or engineering degree, or equivalent practical experience
Who this fits
This suits a software engineer interested in combining AI, distributed systems and research acceleration. The role is based in San Francisco.
From the employer
Perplexity is seeking software engineers to join our Training Infrastructure team. We’re responsible for the large-scale RL and agent evaluation platforms that enable Perplexity to train state-of-the-art models and optimize agent harnesses.
We are full-stack engineers with a broad remit. If you join us, you’ll build the distributed systems that orchestrate AI workloads across global-scale compute infrastructure. You’ll also define novel user and agent interfaces for designing, managing, and launching experiments. You’ll create tools that make experiment results legible to humans and agents alike, enabling everything from ad-hoc experiment retrospectives to closed-loop autoresearch. And much more!
A strong candidate will possess both experience and passion for solving difficult problems at the intersection of AI, distributed systems, and research acceleration.
Qualifications
2+ years of experience developing and shipping distributed systems for compute-intensive workloads, with a focus on reliability, scalability, and performance.
Proficiency in a general-purpose backend language such as Python, Rust, C++, or Go, and experience with cloud infrastructure and container orchestration, such as AWS and Kubernetes.
Familiarity with reinforcement learning (RL), agent evaluation, or ML infrastructure, and an interest in building systems that accelerate experimentation and model development.
BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Why Perplexity is different
Craftsmanship. We build high quality, tasteful products targeting both the AI native and AI curious.
Ownership. You identify the problem, design the solution and ship it.
Entrepreneurship. We think like founders, act with urgency, and hustle to deliver for each other and our users.
Scholarship. Work among highly talented peers, pursuing knowledge and truth, upleveling ourselves, our teams, and our products.
Partnership. We amplify each others' strengths, break down silos, and give selflessly to help our colleagues deliver excellence.
Software Engineering work from LinkedIn, X, Reddit and Upwork, in one list.
Each morning you get everything that fits, strongest first.
Software Engineering$220k+
Find me workBy the team behind techroles.