Member of Technical Staff (Rust Engineer, Search)
About this role
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