Perplexity

Brand Designer, Growth at Perplexity (San Francisco, CA)

Perplexity· San Francisco, CA· $150k–$225k·

Role details

Salary
$150k–$225k
Work type
Hybrid
Employment
Full-Time
Equity
Yes

Perplexity at a glance

AI-powered answer engine that returns real-time, cited answers, now expanding into an agentic browser and on-device agents.

Perplexity runs an AI answer engine that searches the live web and returns direct, cited answers instead of a page of links. It has extended that core into an AI browser (Comet), an on-device agent (Computer), a developer API, and vertical tools like patent search.

$1.7B raised · latest: Series E extension · $200M · 2025 (reported $20B valuation) · backed by Accel, IVP, NEA, SoftBank Vision Fund 2

Job description

We're looking for a Growth Brand Designer to sit at the intersection of brand craft and growth performance. You'll be the designer who makes Perplexity's highest-volume, highest-leverage marketing surfaces — paid ads, social, lifecycle email, and campaign assets — look unmistakably Perplexity while actually moving the numbers.

This is a shipping role, but it's equally a thinking role. Strategic concepting is a big part of the job: you'll sit with the Growth team as an ideator — generating campaign concepts, testing hypotheses, and shaping the creative strategy behind the work — not just executing briefs handed to you. The ideas you bring to the table matter as much as the assets you ship.

You'll produce a steady stream of ad and campaign creative across formats and channels, then work with Growth to read the results and iterate. You care about conversion and craft in equal measure: you'd never ship an off-brand asset to win a test, and you'd never hide behind polish when the data says a concept isn't working.

You'll report into the Brand/Creative Studio team and work closely with Growth, Product Marketing, Brand, and our motion and web designers.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

  • Drive strategic concepting for growth campaigns — bring original ideas, angles, and creative territories to the table, and shape the brief rather than just receiving it
  • Operate as a true ideation partner to the Growth team: co-develop campaign strategy, propose test hypotheses, and pitch concepts that open up new creative directions
  • Own the design of growth creative end-to-end — paid social and display ads, campaign assets, and lifecycle email — from concept to shipped asset
  • Design for volume and velocity: build variant sets, test hypotheses, and iterate on winners with the Growth team using real performance data
  • Turn product launches and GTM campaigns into ad creative that lands on every channel it runs — static, animated, and everything in between
  • Build and maintain scalable ad and email templates so high-frequency asset production stays fast and on-brand
  • Partner with Brand to keep visual consistency across every growth touchpoint as our brand system evolves
  • Collaborate with our motion designer and web designer so campaigns feel cohesive from the first ad impression to the landing page
  • Bring a strong point of view on what makes performance creative great — and push back when a "best practice" would cheapen the brand

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

  • A strong portfolio of growth and brand design work — paid ads, social campaigns, lifecycle email, campaign systems — that shows both craft and results
  • Proven strategic concepting ability: you can show campaigns where the idea was yours, not just the execution, and articulate the thinking behind them
  • Excellent visual design skills with a clear sense of brand, typography, layout, and composition
  • Hands-on experience designing performance creative at a consumer or prosumer tech company, including working directly with growth or performance marketing teams
  • Fluency reading creative performance data (CTR, conversion, hook rates) and translating it into design decisions
  • Ability to work fast, manage a high volume of deliverables across channels, and iterate quickly without dropping the quality bar
  • Fluency in Figma and the Adobe Creative Suite
  • An instinct for building repeatable systems — templates, variant frameworks, asset kits — rather than one-off files
  • 5+ years of industry experience

NICE TO HAVE

  • Motion design skills — animated ads, short-form video for social, or After Effects fluency
  • Familiarity with ad platform specs and constraints (Meta, Google, TikTok, X, YouTube) and how they shape creative decisions
  • Experience using AI-assisted design and image-generation workflows to scale creative output
  • Copywriting instincts — you can tighten a headline when there's no writer in the room

Why work at Perplexity

  • Culture & Environment: “Thoughtful support” culture with emphasis on craftsmanship, ownership, entrepreneurship, scholarship, and partnership. Hybrid schedule (4 days in-office) based on location.
  • Perks: Daily catered meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner in office), office snacks, ride home program, commuter benefits, home office reimbursement, fitness classes, gym memberships.
  • Compensation & Benefits: Competitive salary and equity packages; retirement plans with company match; flexible PTO; holiday shutdown between Christmas and New Year; 12 weeks paid bonding leave; comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.
  • Relocation & Visa Support: Relocation assistance and visa/green card sponsorship for eligible roles. Partners with immigration firm to support the process.
  • Engineering Excellence: “Technical assessment for relevant roles”; values hands-on contribution, broad skill sets, and merit-based evaluation. Frequent Tech Talks and exposure to greenfield AI research problems.

Application questions