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<source>
  <jobs>
    <job>
      <externalid>aa6583aa-e31</externalid>
      <Title>Staff Backend Software Engineer - API Platform</Title>
      <Description><![CDATA[<p>As a Staff Backend Engineer, you will shape the technical foundation of Perplexity&#39;s external platform. You&#39;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.</p>
<p><strong>What you&#39;ll do</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Design, build, and operate mission-critical APIs in Python, Go, or Rust optimized for low latency, high throughput, and strong consistency.</li>
<li>Lead major technical initiatives, from new platform components to multi-team system redesigns.</li>
<li>Improve system reliability and security by implementing rate limiting, authentication, observability (metrics, tracing, logging), and automated testing.</li>
<li>Collaborate across teams to determine when to extend existing systems versus build new, specialized services.</li>
<li>Translate customer needs into scalable platform capabilities and generalized API features.</li>
<li>Uphold engineering excellence through design reviews, code quality, and internal documentation.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>What you need</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>5+ years of backend engineering experience with Python, Go, or Rust.</li>
<li>Strong understanding of high-traffic API design: versioning, schema evolution, idempotency, auth patterns, and performance tuning.</li>
<li>Hands-on experience running AWS services, plus fluency with Kubernetes, CI/CD, and modern DevOps practices.</li>
<li>Experience with LLM or natural-language APIs (latency tuning, streaming, model orchestration) is a strong plus.</li>
<li>Strong customer empathy and product sense, ensuring the APIs you build are ergonomic, well-documented, and easy to adopt.</li>
</ul>
<p style="margin-top:24px;font-size:13px;color:#666;">XML job scraping automation by <a href="https://yubhub.co">YubHub</a></p>]]></Description>
      <Jobtype>full-time</Jobtype>
      <Experiencelevel>staff</Experiencelevel>
      <Workarrangement>onsite</Workarrangement>
      <Salaryrange>$250K – $405K</Salaryrange>
      <Skills>backend engineering experience with Python, Go, or Rust, high-traffic API design, AWS services, Kubernetes, CI/CD, modern DevOps practices, LLM or natural-language APIs, latency tuning, streaming, model orchestration</Skills>
      <Category>Engineering</Category>
      <Industry>Technology</Industry>
      <Employername>Perplexity</Employername>
      <Employerlogo>https://logos.yubhub.co/perplexity.com.png</Employerlogo>
      <Employerdescription>Perplexity is a company that is redefining how people search, reason, and interact with information. Their API team sits at the core of this vision, designing and operating the high-performance interfaces that expose Perplexity&apos;s intelligence to developers, enterprises, and products worldwide.</Employerdescription>
      <Employerwebsite>https://jobs.ashbyhq.com</Employerwebsite>
      <Compensationcurrency></Compensationcurrency>
      <Compensationmin></Compensationmin>
      <Compensationmax></Compensationmax>
      <Applyto>https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/perplexity/9ac5e638-85f6-4308-bcd5-7dfe0a30a79b</Applyto>
      <Location>San Francisco, New York City, Seattle</Location>
      <Country></Country>
      <Postedate>2026-03-04</Postedate>
    </job>
  </jobs>
</source>