Engineering Manager

About the role

Perplexity is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead and grow our highly driven Agents engineering team. This team comprises AI/ML, backend, and full-stack engineers who work collaboratively to develop innovative agentic experiences within our Comet ecosystem. The primary goal of this role is to empower users with AI agents capable of faithfully actualizing their intent through open-ended interactions with the world. As an Engineering Manager, you will bring your expertise in AI, product intuition, and engineering management to advance the capabilities of our AI agents, solving complex technical challenges and supporting a rapidly expanding user base. You will be responsible for guiding the technical direction, overseeing the development process, and nurturing a high-performing team to deliver impactful AI solutions that redefine what is possible in the AI industry.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Provide strong technical leadership across multiple layers of the AI agents product, including system architecture, infrastructure, and application development.
• Develop and leverage cutting-edge AI models, infrastructure, and browser technologies to push the frontier of AI capabilities and scale those capabilities to meet the needs of a rapidly growing user base.
• Exercise sharp technical and product intuition to guide the team's decision-making on system design, architecture, and product roadmaps, ensuring alignment with strategic goals.
• Drive product reliability, maintain high code quality standards, and oversee AI evaluation, testing, and ongoing maintenance to ensure a seamless user experience.
• Manage the hiring process, onboarding, and mentorship of a fast-growing engineering team, developing rigorous interview pipelines and working closely with recruiting to source high-caliber candidates.
• Interface regularly with the co-founders of Perplexity to deliver on strategic objectives, ensuring technical efforts support the company's vision of advancing AI technology.
• Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning within the team, encouraging best practices and technical excellence.
• Oversee the development of permission architectures, payload classifiers, and other security-focused components to ensure that agent capabilities are secure-by-design.
• Design and implement optimal data representations and modes of interaction between agents and their environments, enabling more effective and natural agent behaviors.
• Lead efforts to improve system performance, scalability, and security, balancing technical trade-offs to deliver robust solutions.
• Collaborate with product managers and other stakeholders to define features, prioritize development tasks, and ensure timely delivery of high-impact projects.
• Mentor engineers in technical skills, best practices, and career development, fostering a high-performance engineering culture.
• Stay informed about the latest advancements in AI, browser technologies, and related fields to incorporate innovative solutions into the product.
• Oversee parallel technical projects, ensuring they are aligned with company goals and delivered on schedule.
• Develop strategies for managing technical debt and ensuring long-term maintainability of the platform.
• Contribute to the overall technical vision of Perplexity, helping to shape the future of AI agents and their integration into various environments.

Requirements

• Strong foundational knowledge of the full AI product stack, including experience with frontier models and AI infrastructure.
• Proficiency in Python; experience with TypeScript, Go, and/or Rust is a plus.
• Domain expertise in at least one of the following areas: context engineering and tool interfaces for frontier AI models, post-training and reinforcement learning (especially for multimodal models), or browser technologies such as CDP, Playwright, or extension development.
• Demonstrated product intuition with a focus on delivering excellent user experiences.
• Hands-on experience working with frontier AI models, particularly those relevant to open-world agents and complex multimodal interactions.
• Strong organizational skills for managing multiple technical projects simultaneously, with the ability to guide teams in making sound tradeoffs and prioritization decisions.
• Proven experience managing engineering teams, including recruiting, onboarding, mentoring, and retaining top talent.
• At least 8 years of engineering experience, with a minimum of 3 years in a managerial role leading engineering teams.
• Excellent communication skills to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and executive leadership.
• Ability to balance technical depth with strategic thinking to drive product innovation.

Nice to have

• Experience with open-world agent systems and multimodal AI models.
• Knowledge of browser automation tools such as CDP, Playwright, or extension development.
• Background in designing secure architectures for AI systems, including permission architectures and payload classifiers.
• Familiarity with environment design and interaction modes for agents operating in complex, real-world scenarios.
• Prior experience working in fast-paced, innovative technology companies with a focus on AI and machine learning.
• Understanding of open-ended AI interactions and how to optimize agent behaviors for diverse environments.

Skills & tools

• Python programming language
• TypeScript (bonus)
• Go (bonus)
• Rust (bonus)
• AI/ML models and infrastructure development
• Browser technologies such as CDP, Playwright, extension development
• System architecture and product roadmapping
• Talent management and team leadership
• Security architecture and permission design
• Data representation and interaction design for AI agents

Practical notes

• This is an on-site role based in San Francisco.
• The position involves leading a highly technical team focused on frontier AI models, infrastructure, and agent systems.
• Candidates should have a strong background in AI engineering, product development, and team management.
• The role requires balancing technical excellence with strategic vision to drive product innovation and user impact.
• The successful candidate will work closely with the co-founders and cross-functional teams to shape the future of AI agents within the Perplexity ecosystem.
• Candidates must demonstrate a passion for advancing AI technology and a commitment to building scalable, secure, and user-centric solutions.