# Member of Technical Staff

**Company:** [Perplexity](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/perplexity)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA, New York, NY, Palo Alto, CA
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $220k – $405k/yr
**Experience:** 4+ years
**Skills:** AWS, Kubernetes, Python, Go, Rust, System Design, Authentication, Authorization, Encryption, RBAC
**Posted:** 2026-06-03

> Lead the design and implementation of backend systems for authentication, authorization, real-time data flows, service orchestration, and sandboxing. This role requires strong system design skills and experience with modern infrastructure and backend languages.

## Job Description

## Key Responsibilities

* Lead the design and implementation of our sandboxing platform to safely execute untrusted and user-generated code while meeting strict performance and reliability requirements.
* Define and extend our RBAC and authorization primitives, ensuring they scale with new product capabilities and enterprise controls.
* Own key backend services involved in authentication and encryption flows (including BYOK-related pieces), partnering with Security and Infra on defense-in-depth.
* Set the technical bar for backend platform design and operations, driving best practices in reliability, observability, and incident response for always-on systems.
* Partner with product and AI teams to define clear platform interfaces, SLAs, and integration patterns so new features can reliably build on shared backend capabilities.
* Provide technical leadership across the backend platform area, mentoring other engineers and making long-term architectural decisions that keep the foundation simple, secure, and evolvable.

## 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 creating efficient, reliable, and scalable architectures.
* Hands-on experience with modern infrastructure (for example AWS, Kubernetes, and related cloud technologies).
* 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.
* Collaborative mindset and eagerness to solve challenging technical problems with other experienced engineers.
* Comfort working in security-sensitive areas (auth, authorization, encryption) and making pragmatic trade-offs between safety, simplicity, and velocity.

If you’re excited about this role, we encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn’t match every qualification listed above.

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**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/e78cec11-83fd-4eca-8f17-405fb127db6d
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