Member of Technical Staff (Machine Learning Research Engineer)

Perplexity is seeking an experienced Machine Learning Research Engineer to help build the next generation of advanced search technologies, with a focus on retrieval and ranking.

Responsibilities

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Relentlessly push search quality forward — through models, data, tools, or any other leverage available

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Architect and build core components of the search platform and model stack

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Design, train, and optimize large-scale deep learning models using frameworks like PyTorch, leveraging distributed training (e.g., PyTorch Distributed, DeepSpeed, FSDP) and hardware acceleration, with a focus on retrieval and ranking models

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Conduct advanced research in representation learning, including contrastive learning, multilingual, and multimodal modeling for search and retrieval

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Deploy models — from boosting algorithms to LLMs — in a scalable and performant way

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Build and optimize RAG pipelines for grounding and answer generation

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Collaborate with Data, AI, Infrastructure, and Product teams to ensure fast and high-quality delivery

Qualifications

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• Deep understanding of search and retrieval systems, including quality evaluation principles and metrics
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• Proven track record with large-scale search or recommender systems
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• Strong proficiency with PyTorch, including experience in distributed training techniques and performance optimization for large models
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• Expertise in representation learning, including contrastive learning and embedding space alignment for multilingual and multimodal applications
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• Strong publication record in AI/ML conferences or workshops (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, CVPR, SIGIR)
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• Self-driven, with a strong sense of ownership and execution
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• Minimum of 3 years (preferably 5+) working on search, recommender systems, or closely related research areas