Member of Technical Staff (Search Engine Developer, Search Core) at Perplexity (Belgrade, Serbia)
Perplexity· Belgrade, Serbia·
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 a highly skilled Senior or Expert Systems Engineer to join our Search Core team. This role is critical to building next-generation search products and technologies. You will help drive key decisions around the architecture, design, and implementation of foundational components in our technical stack.
Responsibilities
- Design and build core search engine components, including indexing pipelines, retrieval algorithms, and ranking systems that operate at the scale of billions of pages
- Develop streaming and batch data processing systems for search index construction in a high-load environment
- Push the limits of hardware performance through low-level optimizations and systems-level tuning
- Tackle challenges in multithreading, concurrency, and system-level optimization
Qualifications
- 3+ years of hands-on experience in systems programming (Rust, C++, C, or similar)
- Ownership of full project lifecycle — you don't just write a fast inner loop, you care about how the system is built, deployed, operated, and scaled in production
- Knowledge of Python or other scripting languages
- Passion for writing clean, efficient, and scalable systems-level code
- Strong knowledge of algorithms and data structures, and the ability to apply them effectively
- Deep understanding of multithreading, including various approaches, challenges, and trade-offs
- Experience building high-load, distributed, and hardware-adjacent services
- Solid understanding of Linux internals (syscalls, networking stack, memory model, kernel tuning)
- Familiarity with low-level optimization techniques (memory management, cache efficiency, SIMD, profiling)
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience developing core components of search engines, databases, or information retrieval systems
- Understanding of search fundamentals: indexing, query parsing, ranking, and relevance
- Experience with trading systems or other latency-sensitive real-time systems
- Familiarity with cloud services, Kubernetes, and AWS infrastructure
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.