
Lead Product Designer, Growth at Perplexity (San Francisco, CA)
Perplexity· San Francisco, CA· $180k–$300k·
Role details
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
Perplexity is looking for an experienced Lead Product Designer to own design for Growth. You'll shape the experiences that bring Perplexity to as many people as possible — making software that feels like the future but can be understood and used by anyone in the world today.
Growth design has its own craft and nuance. You'll own the highest-leverage moments in the user journey: first-run onboarding and activation, consumer acquisition surfaces, conversion and upsell flows, paywalls and pricing, and the retention loops that turn first-time users into daily ones. This is design where a few pixels or a single step can move real numbers, so you'll pair a high craft bar with rigorous experimentation — shipping constantly and letting real data guide the work.
You care about clarity, craft, details, and delight as much as you care about growth and impact. This role is deeply cross-functional: you'll partner closely with our Growth and Product Marketing teams to align on positioning, messaging, and funnel strategy, and you care about everything it takes to make a product great: product, interaction, brand, growth, copywriting, engineering, and marketing.
What you'll do
- Lead product design for Growth across the full funnel — acquisition, onboarding, activation, conversion, upsells, and retention
- Design first-run and onboarding experiences that get users to value as fast as possible
- Craft consumer acquisition and activation surfaces, and conversion/upsell flows including paywalls, pricing, and plan comparison
- Partner closely with Growth and Product Marketing on positioning, messaging, landing experiences, and funnel strategy
- Design and run experiments, using data and real usage to drive decisions and measure impact
- Ship features that balance well-established UI paradigms with novel applications of AI
- Think about how to go from 0→1 but also how to make your decisions scale well
- Contribute to process so we're always shipping changes you're proud of, as often as possible
- Partner with brand design to ensure our growth surfaces are not only effective but memorable
What we're looking for
- Experience designing consumer or prosumer products, with a strong track record in growth design
- Deep understanding of growth nuances: onboarding, activation, acquisition, conversion, upsells, paywalls, pricing, and retention
- A data-informed approach — fluent in experimentation, funnels, and metrics, and comfortable learning from usage
- Experience partnering with Growth, Product Marketing, and cross-functional teams on messaging and funnel strategy
- Comfortable thinking about both 0→1 product design and large-scale optimization
- Excellent visual, UI, and interaction skills
- An excellent communicator with team members and users
- You care about shipping great software more than anything else
- 5+ years of industry experience
Nice to have
- Comfort prototyping or coding your ideas
- Some of our design team writes production code — we welcome existing skills or interest in coding with React or SwiftUI
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.