AI Inference Engineer - San Francisco - Perplexity AI

As an AI Inference Engineer at Perplexity, you will join our growing team to work on one of the most advanced and innovative AI platforms in the world, focused on revolutionizing information access and knowledge synthesis. You will have the opportunity to work on large-scale deployment of machine learning models for real-time inference, contributing to our cutting-edge question-answering and information retrieval systems.

You will be responsible for the internal workings of the AI inference stack running neural networks that power Perplexity's systems, collaborating closely with our AI Model Engineers and Infrastructure Engineers.

Responsibilities

• Implement and optimize inference for state-of-the-art Large Language Models (LLMs) and Vision Language Models (VLMs)
• Co-design models for efficient execution on our GPU infrastructure, focusing on high-performance inference
• Develop and optimize the AI inference stack, including work on ML compilers and runtime architectures
• Benchmark and address bottlenecks throughout our inference stack
• Analyze and debug functional and performance issues on massively-parallel systems
• Develop APIs for AI inference that will be used by both internal and external customers
• Improve the reliability and observability of our systems and respond to system outages
• Stay up-to-date with the latest developments in ML/compiler community and apply them to our stack

Qualifications

• Ability to move fast
• Proficient CUDA/C/C++, Rust, or Triton programming
• Experience with Python and ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, ONNX)
• Familiarity with common LLM architectures and inference optimization techniques (e.g., continuous batching, quantization)
• Experience with deploying reliable, distributed, real-time model serving at scale
• Prior experience working with ML compilers (e.g., MLIR, XLA, TensorRT)
• Understanding of GPU architectures or experience with GPU kernel programming using CUDA (preferred) Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent in experience and evidence of exceptional ability

The cash compensation range for this role is $190,000 - $250,000.

At Perplexity, we've experienced tremendous growth and adoption since publicly launching the world's first fully functional conversational answer engine in 2022. We've grown from answering 2.5 million questions per day at the start of 2024 to around 20 million daily queries in December 2024. We also offer Perplexity Enterprise Pro, which counts leading companies like Nvidia, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Bridgewater, and Zoom as customers.

To support our rapid expansion, we've raised significant funding from some of the most respected technology investors. Our investor base includes IVP, NEA, Jeff Bezos, NVIDIA, Databricks, Bessemer Venture Partners, Elad Gil, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Naval Ravikant, Tobi Lutke, and many other visionary individuals. In 2024, our employee base grew nearly 300%, and we're just getting started.

Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including, experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.

Equity: In addition to the base salary, equity is part of the total compensation package.
Benefits: Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance for you and your dependents. Includes a 401(k) plan.