Member of Technical Staff (Backend/Infrastructure Engineer, Search)
at Perplexity AI
Posted 18 hours ago
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**Backend/Infrastructure Engineer, Search | Member of Technical Staff** Perplexity seeks a skilled Backend/Infrastructure Engineer for our search team. You'll own and enhance our latency-sensitive search stack, working across Rust/Go services, distributed retrieval systems, and cloud infrastructure. This role combines infrastructure expertise with software engineering, taking systems from design to production operation and leveraging AI-native tools. Key responsibilities include: - Building and operating scalable, low-latency search infrastructure. - Designing and improving distributed backend systems for high request volumes. - Debugging and optimizing Linux systems, containers, networking, and production services. - Enhancing reliability through observability, capacity planning, and incident response. - Designing, deploying, and operating cloud-native systems primarily on AWS and Kubernetes. - Developing internal tools and automation for development, testing, debugging, and infrastructure operations. Requirements: - Proven experience (5+ years) in infrastructure engineering or similar roles. - Proficiency in Rust, Go, or other relevant programming languages. - Strong background in Linux system administration, containers, and networking. - Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS) and Kubernetes. - Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code (IaC) tools. - Strong problem-solving skills and a focus on reliability and performance. - BS/MS in Computer Science or a related technical field. Join our team to build and improve large-scale search systems, working with cutting-edge technologies and tools.
Perplexity is looking for an Infrastructure Engineer to own and improve the backend systems behind our latency-sensitive search stack. You’ll work across high-QPS Rust and Go services, distributed retrieval systems, cloud infrastructure, observability, and deployment tooling.
This role combines infrastructure expertise with software engineering. You’ll take systems from design through production operation and use AI-native tools where they meaningfully improve engineering and operational workflows
Responsibilities
Build and operate scalable, low-latency infrastructure for search serving and retrieval.
Design and improve distributed backend systems that handle high request volumes.
Debug and optimize Linux systems, containers, networking, and production services.
Improve reliability through observability, capacity planning, performance profiling, and incident response.
Design, deploy, and operate cloud-native systems, primarily on AWS and Kubernetes.
Build internal tools and automation for development, testing, debugging, and infrastructure operations.
Improve CI/CD pipelines, release processes, and production rollout safety.
Contribute directly to product codebases across Rust, Go, and other systems languages.
Own systems end to end, from architecture and implementation to deployment and production operation.
Requirements
Strong experience with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and automation.
Deep understanding of Linux internals, performance analysis, and production debugging.
Experience building or operating latency-sensitive, high-throughput backend systems.
Experience with containers, orchestration, observability, and infrastructure as code.
Experience building or maintaining CI/CD systems and release tooling.
Fluency in at least one systems language, such as Rust, Go, C++, or Java.
Comfort working across infrastructure and application-level code.
Strong ownership and the ability to operate effectively in a fast-moving environment.
Nice To Have
Experience with search, retrieval, ranking, or other large-scale data-serving systems.
Experience operating Rust services in production.
Experience with AWS, Kubernetes, and modern observability systems.
Experience with profiling, capacity planning, and performance optimization.
Experience building AI-assisted developer or operational tooling.
