---
title: 'IP Paralegal at Perplexity'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/ip-paralegal-perplexity-san-francisco-skqk1c1qw004'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-01'
---

# IP Paralegal at Perplexity

- **Company:** [Perplexity](https://feeny.ai/companies/perplexity)
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $130k–$210k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-30
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-01
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/perplexity/e03bf342-0407-45aa-b084-9aaf6939eea5

## Job description

Perplexity AI is looking for a highly organized and resourceful IP Paralegal to serve as the operational backbone of a fast-growing, full-stack intellectual property program, with a primary responsibility for patent and trademark prosecution and portfolio management, and additional support work across copyrights, trade secrets, and open source compliance. This role reports to the Director of Intellectual Property and offers significant responsibility and direct exposure to novel questions at the intersection of artificial intelligence and IP law, as well as growth potential across other areas of an in-house practice group. You will partner closely with outside counsel, engineering stakeholders, and cross-functional teams to run the workflows behind a growing patent and trademark portfolio, maintain copyright and trade secret practices, and support open source compliance review. You will own day-to-day docketing and portfolio hygiene, manage outside counsel requests and billing against budget, and run intake and matter tracking so that nothing slips. You will also run our patent rewards program end-to-end and be a go-to resource for IP diligence support and IP-adjacent needs, including commercial and litigation support as needed. This role requires a genuine curiosity about using agentic AI systems to make the IP program run faster and more consistently, rather than treating AI tooling as an afterthought. This is a hands-on role for someone who is detail-obsessed, comfortable moving across multiple IP disciplines in the same week, fluent with AI and legal-technology tooling, and energized by building repeatable systems from the ground up so that a lean team can run a large, technically complex portfolio. If you are a curious person and your instinct when something breaks is to redesign the process, you will do well here.

## Key Responsibilities

- Manage end-to-end workflows across the patent and trademark portfolios, including docketing, deadline tracking, filing coordination, portfolio maintenance, and status reporting to internal stakeholders.
- Support trade secret protection practices and open source compliance review, including tracking disclosure and license obligations and flagging issues for attorney review.
- Administer copyright matters, including registration filings, recordation, and portfolio record keeping.
- Own intake and triage for new invention disclosures, trademark clearance requests, and other IP matters.
- Manage outside counsel relationships and billing, including matter budgets, accrual tracking, invoice review against outside counsel guidelines, rate negotiation support, and matter-management hygiene in billing systems.
- Run the patent rewards program.
- Prepare and file U.S. trademark applications and coordinate foreign filings through local counsel.
- Run preliminary clearance searches for new products and features.
- Coordinate trademark office action responses, review watch notices, and recommend enforcement actions.
- Manage the domain name portfolio and the online brand protection and takedown programs.
- Conduct IP portfolio analysis, including filing trend tracking, competitive landscape monitoring, and gap identification, to support portfolio strategy and prosecution priorities.
- Provide support on IP-adjacent matters as needed, including commercial contract IP terms and litigation support (e.g., document gathering, chronologies, and coordination with outside counsel).
- Maintain and improve internal file management systems, trackers, and dashboards, keeping matter data, deadlines, and portfolio status current and audit-ready.
- Build and improve the systems behind the work, including intake workflows, filing playbooks, matter templates, and escalation paths, so that recurring problems are solved structurally rather than absorbed by heroics.
- Use and help evolve agentic AI tools to support IP workflows such as docketing, disclosure intake, prior art gathering, and portfolio reporting, and bring ideas for where automation can meaningfully improve program efficiency.

## Qualifications

Need to have:

- A sense of humor and a team mindset
- 10+ years of experience as an IP paralegal, with a mix of in-house and law firm experience
- Demonstrated AI tool fluency and genuine curiosity about applying agentic AI systems to IP program operations
- Hands-on experience supporting a mix of patent and trademark prosecution workflows, including docketing, filing coordination, and portfolio maintenance
- Working knowledge of copyright administration and trade secret protection practices
- Experience managing outside counsel relationships, including invoice review, budget tracking, and adherence to outside counsel guidelines
- Experience managing a high volume of concurrent matters and deadlines with strong organizational skills and exacting attention to detail
- Ability to multitask and effectively manage competing priorities in a fast-paced startup environment
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to correspond directly with outside counsel, inventors, and internal stakeholders
- Demonstrated discretion and sound judgment when handling confidential and privileged material
- Genuine interest in IP diligence work and in stepping into IP-adjacent needs as they come up, including commercial and litigation support

Nice to have:

- Paralegal certificate, associate's degree in paralegal studies, or bachelor's degree
- Direct experience with open source license compliance review
- Experience running or supporting an inventor recognition or patent rewards/incentive program
- Experience supporting IP diligence for M&A, financing, or commercial transactions
- Litigation support experience (e.g., discovery, document review, case file management)
- Experience with IP portfolio analytics, competitive filing intelligence, or landscape mapping
- Direct experience with docketing platforms, IP management software, and legal billing or matter management systems
- Experience at a high-growth technology startup
- Interest in artificial intelligence laws and regulations

## About Perplexity

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Perplexity builds an AI-powered answer engine that delivers accurate, real-time answers to any question, serving curious minds and professionals who demand precision and speed.
- **Entity Type**: Private (total funding $1.7B across 16 rounds)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, Andy Konwinski

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: AI-powered search and knowledge retrieval, Software Development
- **Target customers**: B2C (general users), B2B (enterprise API customers), and power users seeking reliable information
- **Mission**: “AI for people who expect more – more accuracy, more agency, more signal, less noise.”

## Products & Services
- **Perplexity AI (Free Tier)**: Real-time conversational search engine that synthesizes web results with citations, accessible via web and mobile app. *Type*: SaaS
- **Perplexity Pro**: Subscription offering enhanced features such as advanced AI models, multimodal search, and increased usage limits. *Type*: SaaS (subscription)
- **Perplexity API Platform**: Enables developers to integrate Perplexity’s search and reasoning capabilities into their own applications. *Type*: API
- **Perplexity Browser Extension**: Brings AI-powered search directly into the browser for quick answers without leaving the page. *Type*: Browser extension

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available in provided sources (prior reports indicate ~$9B valuation as of 2024, but not confirmed in this data set)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding $1.7B (16 rounds); annual revenue ~$50M (LinkedIn estimate)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not explicitly listed in provided search results; widely known investors include IVP, NEA, Jeff Bezos, and others (not sourced here)
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 11.3% YoY to 1,152 employees; operates in 54 countries; LinkedIn followers grew 131.8% yearly to >1.6M; active hiring across 48+ open roles including AI Research, Engineering, and Go-to-Market teams

## Competitive Advantages
- **Real-time, cited answers**: Unlike traditional chatbots, Perplexity grounds answers in live web results with transparent sources, building trust and accuracy.
- **Multimodal and agentic capabilities**: Continuously pushes frontier research (e.g., query-aware context compression, agents for knowledge work) that differentiates from generic LLM interfaces.
- **Vertical integration from research to product**: In-house AI research team tackles open problems unique to Perplexity’s scale, enabling fast iteration on novel methods.
- **Strong brand and user base**: Rapid consumer adoption with millions of monthly active users and high engagement.

## Strategic Focus
- **Pushing the frontier of search**: Evolving from retrieval services to code generation, agents, and full autonomy in knowledge work.
- **Expanding enterprise and API revenue**: Growing B2B footprint with API platform and enterprise solutions.
- **Global hiring and office expansion**: Offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York, Austin, Washington D.C., London, Berlin, and Belgrade, with “4 days in office” hybrid model.
- **Investing in AI research**: Dedicated research division (Perplexity Research) exploring reasoning, agents, and systems to redefine how people navigate the internet.

## Why Work Here
- **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.

## Sources
1. [perplexity.ai/hub/careers](https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/careers)
2. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/perplexity](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/perplexity)
3. [perplexity.ai](https://www.perplexity.ai/)
4. [linkedin.com/company/perplexity-ai](https://www.linkedin.com/company/perplexity-ai)
5. [research.perplexity.ai](https://research.perplexity.ai/)

## Other roles at Perplexity

- [Engineering Manager (Agent Engine)](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-manager-agent-engine-perplexity-san-francisco-pyjccta1s68b) — San Francisco, CA
- [Member of Technical Staff (AI Policy and Strategic Initiatives)](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-ai-policy-and-strategic-initiatives-perplexity-san-s1yq4fvk8jdc) — San Francisco, CA
- [Member of Technical Staff (AI Software Engineer, Agent Engine)](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-ai-software-engineer-agent-engine-perplexity-san-hs3tx849abbt) — San Francisco, CA
- [Member of Technical Staff (Secure Intelligence Institute)](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-secure-intelligence-institute-perplexity-san-francisco-q3g6c298fqjp) — San Francisco, CA
- [Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Training Infrastructure)](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-software-engineer-training-infrastructure-perplexity-b605dwa01nme) — San Francisco, CA
- [Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, API Platform)](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-software-engineer-api-platform-perplexity-san-jdzqqe9fwdmg) — San Francisco, CA
- [Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Acceleration)](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-software-engineer-acceleration-perplexity-san-601n30mk47ah) — San Francisco, CA
- [Procurement Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/procurement-lead-perplexity-san-francisco-n70x7eqeyyzp) — San Francisco, CA
- [IT Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/it-engineer-perplexity-san-francisco-501k89mczns8) — San Francisco, CA
- [Sales Enablement Operations Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/sales-enablement-operations-manager-perplexity-san-francisco-j5w3hdd6r60m) — San Francisco, CA