Member of Technical Staff (Backend Software Engineer, API Platform)
Requirements
- Experience
- 5+ years
Joblaze summary
In this role, the engineer will focus on designing and operating high-performance APIs that are crucial to Perplexity's platform, ensuring they are optimized for low latency and high throughput. Proficiency in Python, Go, or Rust, along with experience in AWS and modern DevOps practices, is essential for success. This position is ideal for a seasoned backend engineer with over five years of experience, particularly those who have a strong grasp of API design and customer-centric development. The API team plays a pivotal role in shaping the company's vision, making collaboration and innovation key aspects of the work environment.
Joblaze insights
- Listed about a month ago on Joblaze — tracked directly from Perplexity's career page.
- Perplexity has 59 other open roles including Customer Success & Enterprise Support Lead, APAC , Sales Systems Engineer, Enterprise Operations, Scaled Enterprise Customer Success Manager.
- 2358 active Python roles on Joblaze right now.
- 1250 active AWS roles on Joblaze right now.
- 712 active Go roles on Joblaze right now.
Quick facts
- How much experience is required?
- At least 5 years of relevant experience for this Member of Technical Staff (Backend Software Engineer, API Platform) role.
- What's the tech stack?
- Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: AWS, FastAPI, Go, React, Bazel, GitHub.
- What seniority level is this role?
- Perplexity targets staff-level candidates for this position.
- Is this full-time or contract?
- Full-time for this Member of Technical Staff (Backend Software Engineer, API Platform) role at Perplexity.
From the original posting
Perplexity is redefining how people search, reason, and interact with information. Our API team sits at the core of this vision, designing and operating the high-performance interfaces that expose Perplexity’s intelligence to developers, enterprises, and products worldwide. This team owns the architecture, reliability, and security of the APIs that power everything from real-time LLM queries to enterprise-scale integrations.
As a member of our API Platform engineering team, you will shape the technical foundation of Perplexity’s external platform. You’ll architect distributed systems, optimize performance at scale, and set engineering standards that ensure our APIs are fast, resilient, and a delight to build on.
Tech Stack: Python | Go | PostgreSQL | DynamoDB | Redis | FastAPI | React | Bazel | GitHub | AWS
Key Responsibilities
Design, build, and operate mission-critical APIs in Python, Go, or Rust optimized for low latency, high throughput, and strong consistency.
Lead major technical initiatives, from new platform components to multi-team system redesigns.
Improve system reliability and security by implementing rate limiting, authentication, observability (metrics, tracing, logging), and automated testing.
Collaborate across teams to determine when to extend existing systems versus build new, specialized services.
Translate customer needs into scalable platform capabilities and generalized API features.
Uphold engineering excellence through design reviews, code quality, and internal documentation.
Qualifications
5+ years of backend engineering experience with Python, Go, or Rust.
Strong understanding of high-traffic API design: versioning, schema evolution, idempotency, auth patterns, and performance tuning.
Hands-on experience running AWS services, plus fluency with Kubernetes, CI/CD, and modern DevOps practices.
Experience with LLM or natural-language APIs (latency tuning, streaming, model orchestration) is a strong plus.
Strong customer empathy and product sense, ensuring the APIs you build are ergonomic, well-documented, and easy to adopt.