Technical Sourcer, AI

About the role

You will own the end to end sourcing lifecycle for some of the most complex technical roles across the organization, defining how talent is discovered, assessed, and nurtured before they ever reach an interview. You will architect and continuously refine multi channel sourcing machines that balance volume with quality for roles ranging from foundational infrastructure to frontier AI research. You will act as the technical eyes and ears of the hiring team, translating ambiguous job needs into precise search strategies and profiles that resonate with elite candidates. You will relentlessly experiment with new channels, signals, and automation tools, turning sourcing from a reactive function into a proactive, data informed growth engine. You will build deep fluency in the technical domains you serve, enabling credible conversations with engineers that go beyond screening into genuine discovery of motivation and fit. You will partner tightly with recruiters and hiring managers to de risk roles early, ensuring positioning, comp sets, and team context are dialed in before the first posting goes live. You will steward the integrity of the talent pipeline, documenting learnings and patterns so that every role benefits from the accumulated intelligence of the team.

Key facts

What you'll do

Research, identify, and engage engineering and technical talent across multiple disciplines and experience levels, mapping both active and passive candidates through a blend of public signals and proprietary data.

Use a wide range of sourcing strategies, including advanced research, talent mapping, referrals, AI-assisted automation, and creative outreach, to build strong candidate pipelines that are resilient to market fluctuations.

Collaborate with recruiters and hiring teams to deeply understand technical requirements and calibrate profiles with accuracy and nuance, translating dense role specifications into compelling narratives for technical audiences.

Track and analyze pipeline data to drive continuous optimization and improvements in sourcing approaches, using metrics not just to report but to iterate on what actually moves the needle.

Operate with agility, adapting quickly to shifting priorities, hard-to-fill roles, and changing team needs, while maintaining a high bar for candidate quality.

Design and run experiments across channels and messages, testing hypotheses about where and how technical professionals respond best to targeted outreach.

Build and maintain a living map of the technical landscape, tracking clusters of companies, communities, and conferences where high caliber engineers congregate and signal future intent.

Leverage AI assisted sourcing tools to scale repetitive tasks, uncover hidden patterns in data, and free capacity for strategic relationship building and creative problem solving.

Establish and refine playbooks for different domains, from infrastructure and systems roles to applied machine learning, ensuring each discipline receives a tailored sourcing approach.

Surface insights back to hiring partners about emerging skill sets, compensation trends, and competitive dynamics, positioning the company to make informed decisions in a tight talent market.

Champion candidates through the pipeline by coordinating timely feedback, managing interview logistics with empathy, and maintaining engagement even when roles are on pause.

Partner with product and engineering leadership to anticipate future hiring needs, aligning sourcing strategies with long term roadmap shifts and technical bets.

Champion diversity of thought by seeking out candidates from varied backgrounds, institutions, and project experiences while staying within the objective criteria defined by the team.

Maintain a rigorous but humane approach to sourcing, respecting candidate time and privacy while persistently pursuing high impact opportunities.

Requirements

Exceptional technical literacy, comfortable navigating complex technical conversations, parsing nuanced skill sets, and understanding the architecture of software and AI roles, without needing to have built every tool yourself.

Proven experience sourcing talent in highly dynamic and fast paced environments where priorities shift and ambiguity is constant, demonstrating comfort with frequent context switching and rapid learning.

A builder's instinct for AI, eager to adopt new tools, automate your own workflow, and experiment with how AI can make sourcing faster and sharper while maintaining rigorous standards for accuracy.

Creativity and resilience, the ability to design novel sourcing strategies, test new methods, and adapt quickly when faced with obstacles, setbacks, or unexpected candidate responses.

Excellent communication skills, with the ability to build trust and develop relationships with both candidates and internal partner teams, balancing clarity, empathy, and professionalism.

A mindset that thrives on curiosity, iteration, and impact, aligned with Perplexity AI's ethos of building what has never been built before, and contributing to a culture that values learning as much as execution.

Strong ownership and judgment, knowing when to dive into technical weeds and when to step back to see the broader market patterns that shape hiring strategy.

Comfort operating with incomplete information and making decisions based on best available signals, while documenting assumptions and learnings for others to reuse.

Practical notes

This role is based in San Francisco and requires physical presence in the office, with no remote options currently available.

There are no explicit compensation details published for this position in the available source material.

You are expected to start as a full time employee and engage with the role on a full time basis, committing to the pace and scope described in the responsibilities.

Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate technical curiosity and fluency during the application process, as these attributes are central to success in the role.

Perplexity expects all team members to operate with a high degree of transparency, collaboration, and bias toward action, ensuring that sourcing efforts are aligned with company goals and market realities.