Member of Technical Staff (Search Core, Indexing & Data Pipeline Stream)

Perplexity is hiring a Member of Technical Staff (Search Core, Indexing & Data Pipeline Stream) in Belgrade, Serbia. Level rates it ; you can apply on Perplexity.

Level's read on this job

On Level's scale, this role is Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
Tools and skills the posting cites include Rust, C and Python.
Level classifies it as a senior role.
Level lists 137 other open roles at Perplexity.

AI in this role

Build and scale core search engine indexing pipelines, data storage, and distributed data processing systems.

rustcpythonkafkahadoopkubernetesaws

systems-programmingdistributed-systemsdata-pipelinessearch-enginesperformance-optimization

Perplexity is looking for a highly skilled Expert Systems Engineer to join our Search Core team. For the indexing and data processing stream. This role is critical to building next-generation search products and technologies.

Responsibilities

Design and build core search engine components, especially indexing pipelines, data storage formats that operate at the scale of billions of pages
Develop streaming and batch data processing with YT systems for search index construction in a high-load environment
Push the limits of hardware performance through low-level optimizations and systems-level tuning
Tackle challenges in multithreading, concurrency, and system-level optimization
Design and build core search engine components, including indexing pipelines, retrieval algorithms, and ranking systems that operate at the scale of billions of pages
Develop streaming and batch data processing systems for search index construction in a high-load environment
Push the limits of hardware performance through low-level optimizations and systems-level tuning
Tackle challenges in multithreading, concurrency, and system-level optimization

Qualifications

3+ years of hands-on experience in systems programming (Rust, C++, C, or similar)
Ownership of full project lifecycle you don't just write a fast inner loop, you care about how the system is built, deployed, operated, and scaled in production
Knowledge of Python or other scripting languages
Knowledge of Data processing systems (YT/Kafka/Hadoop)
Passion for writing clean, efficient, and scalable systems-level code
Strong knowledge of algorithms and data structures, and the ability to apply them effectively
Deep understanding of multithreading, including various approaches, challenges, and trade-offs
Experience building high-load, distributed, and hardware-adjacent services
Solid understanding of Linux internals (syscalls, networking stack, memory model, kernel tuning)
Familiarity with low-level optimization techniques (memory management, cache efficiency, SIMD, profiling)

Nice to have

Experience developing core components of search engines, databases, or information retrieval systems
Understanding of search fundamentals: indexing, query parsing, ranking, and relevance
Experience with trading systems or other latency-sensitive real-time systems
Familiarity with cloud services, Kubernetes, and AWS infrastructure

How we rate this

Member of Technical Staff (Search Core, Indexing & Data Pipeline Stream) at Perplexity rates 65 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Member of Technical Staff (Search Core, Indexing & Data Pipeline Stream) is an open job at Perplexity.
Level rates this role AI Level 3 of 4: Works on AI.
The role is based in Belgrade.
The job was posted on September 18, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by Perplexity. Apply on Perplexity

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Systems ProgrammingDistributed SystemsData PipelinesSearch EnginesPerformance OptimizationRustCPython

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where systems programming was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where data pipelines was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where search engines was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where performance optimization was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Systems Programming, Distributed Systems, Data Pipelines, Search Engines, and Performance Optimization. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.

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