---
title: 'Senior Cinematographer, Brand Studio at Perplexity'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-cinematographer-brand-studio-perplexity-san-francisco-2fyy35sdtdh1'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-13'
---

# Senior Cinematographer, Brand Studio at Perplexity

- **Company:** [Perplexity](https://feeny.ai/companies/perplexity)
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $150k–$180k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-11
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-13
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/perplexity/38caef61-f8b9-4ba9-a640-870a1e77ba54

## Job description

We’re looking for a Senior Cinematographer to define how Perplexity looks on film. Working with the Creative Director and Video Lead, you’ll translate our visual identity into a practical cinematographic language, then bring it to life across the team’s day-to-day output.

This is a hands-on role. One day you’re shooting a candid office moment or executive interview with a small kit; the next, you’re leading a full camera and lighting crew on a brand film. Most of your time goes to prepping, testing, lighting, and shooting.

You’ll also help build and run our in-house studio, from selecting gear and designing flexible lighting setups to keeping the space production-ready. When turnaround is tight, you’ll support media management and light editing.

You’ll report to the Video Lead and work closely with the Video Producer, Brand Lead, designers, motion designers, Growth, Comms, Product Marketing, and external production partners. The Producer and Video Lead handle crewing, budgets, schedules, and logistics so you can stay focused on production and craft. However, you should think like a storyteller, not just a technician, bringing your own ideas for how to show our product and people more vividly through moodboards, shot lists, storyboards, and a willingness to experiment.

## What You'll Do

- Partner with the Creative Director and Video Lead to define and evolve Perplexity’s cinematographic language, and turn it into repeatable approaches for lighting, lensing, composition, movement, and color.
- Shoot and light a steady mix of day-to-day content: candid office moments, executive interviews, product demos, social, events, and documentary stories.
- Lead cinematography on brand films, campaigns, partnerships, and launches.
- Scale to the work: operate solo with a minimal kit, lead a small crew, or help build a full camera, lighting, grip, team (with help from producers).
- Bring storytelling ideas to the table through moodboards, shot lists, storyboards, and experimentation.
- Own camera, lighting, and movement decisions from creative development through capture: build packages, run tests and tech scouts, and solve constraints before the shoot.
- Recommend crew and equipment for each production and lead the camera and lighting departments on set. Producers handle budgets, schedules, contracts, and logistics.
- Help design, build, and run the in-house studio, including lighting, audio, grip, and monitoring.
- Own the team’s gear: recommend, purchase, organize, and maintain it, with ready-to-shoot packages so no setup gets rebuilt from scratch.
- Handle color grading in DaVinci Resolve, and support selects, stringouts, and light edits when turnaround is tight.
- Keep the visual standard high across formats and crew sizes without overbuilding.

## What We're Looking For

- 6+ years as a cinematographer or DP across branded, commercial, documentary, and interview work.
- A standout reel showing visual authorship, lighting craft, camera movement, and an eye for honest, unscripted moments.
- A strong point of view, paired with the sensitivity to work within and strengthen an existing brand.
- Deep command of camera systems, lenses, exposure, color pipelines, lighting, grip, and on-set monitoring.
- Genuinely hands-on: equally comfortable building a camera, shaping light, operating, troubleshooting, and leading a crew.
- The judgment to make premium images under real constraints, solo with a small kit or leading a full production.
- Strong pre-production instincts: turning a creative idea into a technically sound, right-sized plan.
- Experience briefing and leading freelance crews and vendors on set, and managing professional production equipment.
- Working proficiency in DaVinci Resolve for color grading, selects, and light edits.
- Collaborative and low-ego. You bring a strong opinion, take direction, and solve problems with partners.
- Comfortable moving fast in an ambiguous, high-output environment without compromising craft, safety, or footage.
- Based in or able to work on-site in San Francisco, with flexibility for travel and long shoot days.

## Nice to Have

- A strong Bay Area and Los Angeles network of camera, lighting, grip, sound, production, and rental partners.
- Experience within an in-house brand studio at a technology or consumer company.
- Strong documentary instincts and experience working with founders, executives, talent, or people who are not professional performers.
- Experience with multi-camera interviews, live events, tabletop or product cinematography, motion-control systems, or virtual production.
- Color-grading experience and a strong understanding of how capture decisions carry through finishing and delivery.

## 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/)

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