Member Of Technical Staff (Engineering Lead, Developer Experience & Relations)
perplexity
San Francisco
Development
Engineering
Job Score
90 pts
On-site model (+70)
Development (+10)
Engineering (+10)
Perplexity API Platform
Perplexity innovates at the frontier of AI infrastructure, search, and orchestration to serve the world's most discerning users. The Perplexity API Platform brings our technology to the world's most discerning developers.
From exabyte-scale knowledge indexes to codegen-first agent runtimes, the building blocks behind Perplexity's applications are some of the most battle-tested AI systems in the industry. We believe these same building blocks can and should power the aspirations of builders everywhere. It's one thing to solve planet-scale retrieval, long-horizon orchestration, and other foundational AI challenges within a single product ecosystem. The true measure of success is to turn those solutions into elegant APIs that delight developers and agents alike.
Our API Platform delivers frontier intelligence to thousands of customers: startups, trillion-dollar enterprises, U.S. and allied governments, and everyone in between. We've achieved incredible scale, yet we're just getting started. Join us to build tools for curious minds.
About this role
Perplexity is seeking an energetic leader to oversee the developer experience across our API Platform. In this role, you'll manage our developer experience end-to-end and own the arc of how developers discover, adopt, and succeed with Perplexity's APIs.
You'll combine strong technical expertise with a high bar for craft and a passion for community building. You will personally serve as the face of Perplexity to developers, who will come to trust you as a champion for their needs and priorities. The initiatives you lead will bolster Perplexity as the platform of choice for developers seeking to build performant, efficient, and accurate AI systems.
What you'll do
Oversee the developer experience portfolio across Perplexity API Platform.
Craft and curate our developer-facing presence across docs, SDKs, CLIs, MCPs, and Agent Skills, with meticulous taste and attention to detail.
Build and nurture a thriving developer community that evangelizes Perplexity's API offerings and broadens conceptions of what's possible.
Represent the voice of the developer by maintaining a panoptic understanding of customer priorities, success patterns, and friction points.
Lead public engagement across developer events, social media, forums, and other high-signal channels.
Foster an ecosystem of community resources and examples that set the standard for how each API offering can be most effectively used.
Define metrics for developer health and satisfaction, and drive continuous improvement across our API Platform.
Run workshops, hackathons, and other participatory programs to convert curiosity into tinkering, tinkering into deployment, and deployment into customer wins.
Partner with fellow technical staff, GTM, support, and other cross-functional collaborators to ensure developers succeed across every industry and deployment scale.
What we're looking for
Substantial experience working on or adjacent to developer-facing products in a technical capacity, preferably with a track record of growing adoption.
Strong empathy for developers across experience levels and technology stacks (past developer relations experience is highly relevant).
Detailed and accurate mental model of the developer ecosystem: in particular, how developers learn about, evaluate, and select API products.
Well-calibrated taste for API ergonomics; experience prototyping and developing API-based products end-to-end.
Sound understanding of the modern AI technical stack, major players/technologies at each layer, and differentiation opportunities.
Strong written and oral communication skills, with particular savviness in developer-facing mediums (technical articles, documentation, conference talks, social media, etc.).
Ability to balance aggressive use of frontier AI agents with the need for personality and taste.
High intrinsically-enforced standards for the craft and quality of your work; an eagle eye for imperfection and rough edges (you complain before our customers do).
Eagerness and comfort to wear many hats in service of a world-class developer experience.
About Software Development
Software Development is one of the most dynamic and constantly evolving fields in the job market. Professionals in this area are responsible for creating, maintaining, and optimizing web, mobile, and desktop applications that impact millions of users daily.
Key languages and frameworks include JavaScript (React, Node.js, Vue.js), Python (Django, Flask), Java (Spring), PHP (Laravel), and TypeScript. Demand for full-stack developers continues to grow, especially in tech companies and startups.
Salaries range from entry-level to senior positions, with growing opportunities for remote work and international freelancing.
About Engineering
Software Engineering goes beyond traditional development, focusing on scalability, performance, and system architecture. Software engineers are responsible for designing infrastructures that support millions of simultaneous users.
Skills include microservices architecture, DevOps, cloud computing, application security, and performance optimization. Knowledge of containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and CI/CD is increasingly required.
Senior software engineers are rare and highly compensated professionals, with opportunities at major global tech companies.
Discover Other Areas
Understand the scope of work, key skills, and tools used in different career areas.
About Branding
Branding is the area responsible for building, managing, and strengthening a brand's identity and market value. Branding professionals create strategies that define how the brand is perceived by the public, from the logo to the complete customer experience.
Key skills include brand strategy, visual identity, brand guidelines, positioning, naming, brand voice, market research, brand equity, and brand management. Knowledge of graphic design (Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop), storytelling, and brand experience is a differentiator.
Branding professionals in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master employer branding, digital branding, and can build strong, memorable brands in competitive markets. The field offers opportunities from brand designer to head of brand, with a focus on identity, differentiation, and perceived value.
About Customer Success
Customer Success is the area responsible for ensuring clients achieve their goals when using the product or service. It is a strategic function for retention, expansion, and customer satisfaction.
Key skills include account management, churn analysis, NPS, onboarding, upsell, and cross-sell. Knowledge of CS tools like Gainsight, Totango, and ChurnZero is a differentiator.
CS is becoming increasingly strategic in SaaS companies, with professionals directly contributing to recurring revenue growth (MRR/ARR).
About IT Governance
IT Governance is the area responsible for ensuring that information technology resources are used strategically, efficiently, and in compliance with standards and regulations. IT governance professionals ensure that technology supports business objectives in a secure and reliable manner.
Key skills include IT service management (ITIL), IT audit and compliance, risk management, business continuity, disaster recovery, metrics and indicators (SLAs, KPIs), and strategic alignment between IT and business. Frameworks like COBIT, ITIL, ISO 27001, and compliance standards are essential.
IT Governance professionals in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master ITSM, IT audit, and risk management. The field offers opportunities from governance analyst to CIO/CTO, with a focus on efficiency, compliance, security, and business value.
About Fullstack
Fullstack developers are versatile professionals capable of working on both frontend and backend of web and mobile applications. They master multiple technologies and can build complete products end-to-end, from the user interface to server infrastructure.
Key skills include proficiency in at least one complete stack (React/Vue/Angular + Node.js/PHP/Python/Java), databases (SQL and NoSQL), REST/GraphQL APIs, Git versioning, CI/CD, and basic infrastructure knowledge (Docker, cloud). Clean architecture, DDD, and testing are important differentiators.
Fullstack developers are highly valued in startups and companies that need versatile and autonomous professionals. The field offers opportunities from junior developer to software architect, with a focus on complete delivery, holistic product vision, and ability to work across multiple application layers.
About Web Master
The Web Master is the professional responsible for maintaining, securing, and ensuring the technical performance of websites and web applications. They manage servers, hosting infrastructure, uptime monitoring, and ensure everything runs fast and reliably.
Key skills include server management (Apache, Nginx), hosting (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure), CDN (Cloudflare), SSL, DNS, web security (WAF, firewall), performance (Core Web Vitals, cache, compression), and versioning (Git, CI/CD). Knowledge of Docker, WordPress, cPanel, and monitoring (Sentry, New Relic) is a differentiator.
Web Masters in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master DevOps, SRE, and can guarantee uptime and performance at scale. The field offers opportunities from junior webmaster to SRE and infrastructure engineer, with a focus on reliability, security, and speed.