Joblaze summary

In this role, the Expert Systems Engineer will focus on designing and building essential components for search engines, particularly in indexing and data processing. Proficiency in systems programming languages like Rust or C++ is crucial, along with experience in data processing systems such as YT or Kafka. This position is well-suited for someone with over three years of experience who has a strong grasp of algorithms, multithreading, and system optimization. The team is dedicated to advancing search technologies, making this a pivotal role in a rapidly evolving environment.

Joblaze insights

Listed about a month ago — first seen on Joblaze September 19, 2026. Last confirmed on Perplexity AI's careers page November 15, 2026.

Quick facts

How much experience is required?: At least 3 years of relevant experience for this Member of Technical Staff (Search Core, Indexing & Data Pipeline Stream) role.
What's the tech stack?: Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: C, C++, Hadoop, Kafka, Linux, Python.
What seniority level is this role?: Perplexity AI targets mid-level candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?: Full-time for this Member of Technical Staff (Search Core, Indexing & Data Pipeline Stream) role at Perplexity AI.

From the original posting

Perplexity is looking for a highly skilled Expert Systems Engineer to join our Search Core team. For the indexing and data processing stream. This role is critical to building next-generation search products and technologies.

Responsibilities

Design and build core search engine components, especially indexing pipelines, data storage formats that operate at the scale of billions of pages
Develop streaming and batch data processing with YT 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
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
Knowledge of Data processing systems (YT/Kafka/Hadoop)
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)

Nice to have

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

Member of Technical Staff (Search Core, Indexing & Data Pipeline Stream)

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