Scale Engineer

Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Backend Platform)

Backend Engineer · Senior · Full Time

San FranciscoUSD 220k – 405k1mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

Join Perplexity AI's Backend Platform team as a Member of Technical Staff to design and build critical infrastructure systems that power the entire product ecosystem. This senior-level role focuses on building high-reliability sandboxing platforms, authentication and authorization systems, and backend services while establishing technical standards for system design, observability, and incident response across the organization.

Responsibilities

  • Sandboxing Platform Architecture: Lead the design and full-stack implementation of Perplexity's code sandboxing platform, enabling safe execution of untrusted and user-generated code while maintaining strict performance SLAs and reliability standards that support the product's core functionality.
  • Authorization System Design: Define, architect, and extend RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) and authorization primitives to scale with new product capabilities, enterprise security requirements, and complex permission models for different user tiers.
  • Authentication & Encryption Infrastructure: Own critical backend services responsible for authentication flows, encryption mechanisms, and BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) implementations, collaborating closely with Security and Infrastructure teams to establish defense-in-depth security postures.
  • Technical Standards & Best Practices: Set and enforce rigorous technical standards across the Backend Platform team, establishing best practices in code quality, system reliability, observability, incident response, and operational excellence for always-on production systems.
  • Platform Interface Definition: Collaborate with product and AI teams to define clear, well-documented platform interfaces, service-level agreements (SLAs), and integration patterns, enabling product teams to reliably build features on shared backend infrastructure.
  • Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Provide technical leadership and mentorship to other backend engineers on the platform team, driving long-term architectural decisions that maintain a simple, secure, and evolvable foundation while fostering engineer growth.
  • System Reliability & Operations: Design systems with strong observability and monitoring capabilities, establish incident response procedures, and actively participate in on-call rotations to maintain high uptime and user experience standards across backend infrastructure.
  • Performance Optimization: Continuously monitor, analyze, and optimize backend system performance, identifying bottlenecks in authentication, authorization, and real-time data flows to ensure fast, responsive user experiences at scale.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Production Backend Systems

    Demonstrated experience designing, building, and maintaining backend systems running in production with proven reliability and performance at scale.

  • System Design Expertise

    Track record of creating efficient, reliable, and scalable backend architectures that handle high throughput, low latency, and fault tolerance requirements.

  • Cloud Infrastructure Proficiency

    Hands-on experience with modern cloud platforms such as AWS, including services like EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, and VPC for building cloud-native systems.

  • Kubernetes & Container Orchestration

    Practical knowledge of containerization and orchestration technologies for deploying and managing distributed backend services.

  • Multi-Language Backend Development

    Strong proficiency in at least one backend programming language (Python, Go, or Rust) with the versatility to work in multi-language environments.

  • Security-Sensitive System Design

    Comfort working in authentication, authorization, encryption, and other security-critical areas with ability to balance safety, simplicity, and development velocity.

Education

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field

    Foundational education in computer science, software engineering, mathematics, or equivalent practical experience demonstrating core CS concepts.

Experience

  • 4+ Years Backend Development

    Minimum 4 years of professional experience building and operating backend systems in production, with progressively complex system design responsibilities for mid-level roles.

  • Senior/Staff Level Experience

    For senior or staff-level positions, additional years of experience (5-8+ years) demonstrating technical leadership, mentorship, and architectural influence.

  • Infrastructure & DevOps Experience

    Hands-on background with infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD pipelines, container orchestration, and operational excellence for maintaining highly available systems.

  • Distributed Systems Design

    Proven experience architecting and implementing distributed systems, understanding trade-offs between consistency, availability, and partition tolerance.

Skills

Required

  • System Design

    Expert-level ability to design scalable, reliable, and efficient backend architectures for production systems handling high availability requirements and fault tolerance.

  • Backend Development

    Strong proficiency in at least one backend programming language such as Python, Go, or Rust with demonstrated production experience building distributed systems.

  • Cloud Infrastructure

    Hands-on expertise with modern cloud platforms, particularly AWS and container orchestration technologies like Kubernetes for deploying and managing backend services at scale.

  • Authentication & Authorization

    Deep understanding of security-sensitive systems including identity management, RBAC (Role-Based Access Control), OAuth flows, and encryption mechanisms.

  • Distributed Systems

    Solid grasp of distributed computing concepts including consensus algorithms, eventual consistency, load balancing, and service-to-service communication patterns.

  • Infrastructure & DevOps

    Experience with infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD pipelines, container orchestration, and operational practices for maintaining always-on production systems.

Preferred

  • Sandboxing & Security

    Nice to have

    Experience designing or implementing sandboxing solutions for safely executing untrusted code with strict performance and reliability constraints.

  • Incident Response

    Nice to have

    Track record of designing systems with strong observability, monitoring, and incident response capabilities for zero-downtime operations.

  • Mentorship & Leadership

    Nice to have

    Demonstrated ability to mentor junior engineers, establish technical standards, and drive architectural decisions across engineering teams.

  • Multi-Language Proficiency

    Nice to have

    Comfort working across multiple backend programming languages and making pragmatic technology choices based on system requirements.

  • AI/ML Systems

    Nice to have

    Experience working with AI infrastructure or supporting machine learning workloads at scale, relevant to Perplexity's AI-powered answer engine.

Tech stack

Languages

PythonGoRust

Frameworks

gRPCFastAPIProtobuf

Databases

PostgreSQLRedisDynamoDB

Tools

KubernetesAWSDockerTerraformPrometheus

Other

RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)Service OrchestrationObservability Practices

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 220,000 – 405,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Equity Participation

    Competitive stock option packages for early employees at a well-funded AI startup, providing meaningful ownership and upside participation in Perplexity's growth trajectory.

  • Comprehensive Health Coverage

    Full medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer coverage supporting employee and family wellness needs.

  • Professional Development

    Budget and time allocation for continuous learning, conference attendance, and skill development to stay current with evolving backend technologies and best practices.

  • Collaborative Engineering Culture

    Work alongside experienced engineers solving complex technical challenges with a focus on knowledge sharing, code review rigor, and engineering excellence.

  • Impact on AI Infrastructure

    Direct opportunity to shape the foundational systems powering an advanced AI answer engine, influencing the technical direction of a rapidly scaling company.

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Initial Screening

    Phone or video screen with a recruiter to discuss background, experience with backend systems, and alignment with the role's technical focus areas including system design and infrastructure.

  2. 02

    Technical Deep Dive

    Technical conversation with a Backend Platform team member covering system design fundamentals, experience with distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and your approach to building reliable production systems.

  3. 03

    System Design Interview

    Whiteboard or collaborative coding session where you'll design a complex backend system, discussing trade-offs, scalability considerations, and architectural decisions relevant to authentication, authorization, or infrastructure challenges.

  4. 04

    Code Review & Implementation

    Take-home or live coding exercise demonstrating proficiency in your backend language of choice (Python, Go, or Rust), focusing on code quality, system design thinking, and ability to handle edge cases in a production-like scenario.

  5. 05

    Leadership & Collaboration Discussion

    Conversation with senior engineers or team leads exploring your experience with technical leadership, mentorship, cross-functional collaboration, and how you approach setting technical standards and making architectural decisions.

  6. 06

    Executive Round

    Final discussion with engineering leadership covering long-term vision, career growth opportunities, and your interest in shaping the strategic technical direction of Perplexity's backend infrastructure.

Full posting

Original listing.

About the Role

The Backend Platform team is the backbone of Perplexity’s product reliability, scalability, and performance, enabling every product and AI team to build with confidence.

This high‑impact group builds and maintains critical infrastructure, including backend systems for authentication, authorization, real-time data flows, service orchestration, and sandboxing, to ensure fast, reliable, and secure user experiences. By setting rigorous standards for code quality, uptime and performance, the Platform team ensures everyone at Perplexity can innovate at speed on top of a robust, well-architected foundation.

Key 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.

If you’re excited about this role, we encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn’t match every qualification listed above.

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