Member of Technical Staff (Rust Engineer, Search)

Perplexity AI is seeking a talented Search Rust Engineer to join our rapidly growing team, driving innovation in AI-powered search experiences. As a Search Rust Engineer, your main mission will be to relentlessly optimize performance - squeezing every millisecond of latency from our search stack, while implementing robust, scalable, and reliable systems.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and optimize ultra-low-latency search infrastructure using Rust
• Profile and instrument services, continuously driving down response times at scale
• Develop and maintain distributed backend components powering real-time search and retrieval
• Collaborate closely with product and infrastructure teams to design systems that deliver best-in-class query performance
• Apply advanced concurrency, memory management, and network programming patterns for maximum throughput
• Monitor, debug, and tune production workloads to ensure reliability under demanding traffic
• Contribute to code reviews and mentor peers in high-efficiency Rust development

Requirements

• Deep expertise in Rust programming, especially for backend/search systems
• Experience profiling and tuning high-load, low-latency distributed services
• Strong understanding of systems design, Linux internals, and performance debugging
• Background in cloud infrastructure - preferably AWS - and container orchestration
• Track record of driving efficiency for search or data-intensive products
• Ability to thrive in fast-paced environments and own critical product code
• Passion for benchmarking, instrumentation, and continuous performance improvement