Perplexity
Technology
MemberofTechnicalStaff(SoftwareEngineer,BackendPlatform)
Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Senior candidates.
“Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Backend Platform) at Perplexity. Skills: Backend Platform, Sandboxing platform, Authorization, Authentication. Lead design and implementation of sandboxing platform. Define and extend RBAC and authorization primitives”
Industry & Context.
Solve challenging technical problems
What They're Looking For.
Must Have
4+ years backend systems experience, System design skills, Hands-on modern infrastructure experience, Proficiency in Python, Go, or Rust, Work effectively in multi-language environment, Comfort working in security-sensitive areas
Nice to Have
Kubernetes experience a plus
What You'll Do.
Lead design and implementation of sandboxing platform
Define and extend RBAC and authorization primitives
Own key backend services
Partner with Security and Infra
Set technical bar for backend platform design
Drive best practices in reliability
Drive best practices in observability
Drive best practices in incident response
Partner with product and AI teams
Define clear platform interfaces
Define clear integration patterns
Provide technical leadership
Make architectural decisions
How You'll Work.
Team & Collaboration
Partnering with Security; Partnering with Infra; Partner with product teams; Partner with AI teams; Collaborative mindset; Solve technical problems with engineers
Full Job Description
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 r
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