Member of Technical Staff (Secure Intelligence Institute)

Perplexity is hiring a Member of Technical Staff (Secure Intelligence Institute) in San Francisco, United States. It pays $220k-$405k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Perplexity.

Level's read on this job

Builds AI ●●●● is how Level rates this role: the job is building AI systems.
The posting mentions Python, TypeScript and Go among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a senior role.
Perplexity has 131 other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Conducts original research and develops defenses to secure frontier AI systems and agentic products.

pythontypescriptgorust

ai-agentssecurityprivacythreat-modelingresearch

Perplexity is seeking energetic researchers and engineers to join our Secure Intelligence Institute (SII), Perplexity's flagship research center for advancing security, privacy, and trust in frontier intelligence. SII’s goals are to advance frontier AI security research, translate those advances into concrete improvements in Perplexity's systems, and share knowledge and resources that strengthen the broader AI ecosystem.

As a member of SII, you'll conduct original and impactful research on improving the security and privacy of frontier intelligence systems. Your goal will be to conduct research that is not only rigorous in theory, but practical enough to improve the systems people rely on every day. This work will be informed by the realities of operating general-purpose AI systems used by millions of people and thousands of enterprises, and you'll be expected to translate both your own research and advances from the broader community to practical improvements that protect and defend Perplexity's users.

Responsibilities

Develop threat models for emerging attack surfaces in AI-native products, including browser, search, and autonomous agents.
Identify and analyze security and privacy threats across AI systems, infrastructure, and user-facing products.
Develop novel defenses, mitigations, and detection mechanisms for security and privacy in AI-native products.
Build security evaluation frameworks, benchmarks, and datasets to measure the effectiveness of different defense mechanisms.
Partner with Perplexity’s Security Engineering team to translate state of the art research into shipped security features and hardened system architectures.
Collaborate with top-tier academic and industry researchers in SII's external research network.
Publish findings at premier venues and contribute to the broader security research community.

Qualifications

Hold a PhD (or equivalent research experience) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, with a primary focus on security and/or privacy.
Experience publishing at top security conferences (IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, ACM CCS, NDSS) demonstrating original, impactful research contributions.
Deep expertise in one or more of: security of agentic systems, systems security, web and applications security, program analysis, and software security.
Proficiency in Python (bonus points for TypeScript, Go, and/or Rust).
Ability to operate with high independence, willing to dive in and take ownership, and comfortable in a fast-paced environment where research directly informs product.
Clear and concise communcation, translating complex attack narratives into actionable insights for engineering and leadership.

How we rate this

Member of Technical Staff (Secure Intelligence Institute) at Perplexity rates 90 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

●●●● 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 (Secure Intelligence Institute) is an open job at Perplexity.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The listed salary is $220k-$405k a year.
The role is based in San Francisco.
The job was posted on August 27, 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

AI agentsSecurityPrivacyThreat ModelingResearchPythonTypeScriptGo

Questions you could be asked

How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
Tell me about a project where security was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where privacy was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where threat modeling was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where research was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI agents, Security, Privacy, Threat Modeling, and Research. 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.
Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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