# Member of Technical Staff

**Company:** [Perplexity](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/perplexity)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA, New York, NY, Palo Alto, CA, Seattle, WA
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $220k – $405k/yr
**Experience:** 4+ years
**Skills:** Python, Go, Rust, AWS, Kubernetes, OAuth, API Integrations, System Design, Schema Modeling, Llm Agents
**Posted:** 2026-06-15

> Build and operate the connector runtime and semantic layer that enables Perplexity agents to securely integrate with hundreds of external systems and enterprise data sources.

## Job Description

## Key Responsibilities
- Own the design and implementation of the connector runtime, the system that registers, hosts, and executes built-in connectors, hosted MCP servers, and CLI-backed tools behind a single agent-facing interface.
- Build and extend the semantic layer: tool and entity schemas, capability metadata, relationship modeling, and the mechanisms for capturing and applying organization- and account-specific corrections and knowledge.
- Design the tool-discovery and tool-selection surfaces that agents use to find the right connector and call it correctly, optimizing for both model accuracy and context efficiency.
- Make agent loops robust: structured results, partial-failure and retry semantics, idempotency, pagination, rate-limit handling, and observability into every tool call an agent makes.
- Define authentication, authorization, and credential-isolation patterns for connectors (OAuth flows, BYOK, per-org credential boundaries), partnering with Security and Backend Platform on defense-in-depth.
- Build the connector onboarding path (schemas, fixtures, and evaluation suites) so new connectors ship with measurable quality rather than hope, and drive the eval metrics that tell us a connector actually works inside agent loops.
- Set the technical bar for connector reliability and operability: SLAs, observability, error-rate monitoring, and incident response for an always-on, high-fan-out integration surface.
- Partner with product and AI teams to define clear connector interfaces and integration patterns so new agent capabilities can reliably build on the shared platform.

## Qualifications
- Experience designing and building backend systems that run in production (typically 4+ years for mid-level, more for senior and staff).
- Strong system design skills, with a track record of building efficient, reliable, and scalable architectures, ideally including API integration, gateway, or platform-style systems with many heterogeneous downstreams.
- Strong proficiency in at least one backend language such as Python, Go, or Rust, and the ability to work effectively in a multi-language environment.
- Hands-on experience with modern infrastructure (for example AWS, Kubernetes, and related cloud technologies).
- Depth in at least one of: OAuth and authorization protocols, API/connector or MCP-server development, schema and semantic modeling, or building tooling and evaluation for LLM-based agents.
- Comfort working in security-sensitive areas (auth, authorization, credential isolation) and making pragmatic trade-offs between safety, simplicity, and velocity.
- Collaborative mindset and eagerness to solve hard, ambiguous problems alongside other experienced engineers.

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**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/4a1b511b-1e04-4e50-9a2f-833cbe90c434