Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Security)
Perplexity is hiring a Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Security) 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
- On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- Pay on this posting starts 31% higher than the typical software engineer posting on Level.
- The posting mentions AI agents among its tools and skills.
- Level classes it as a lead role.
- Perplexity has 130 other open roles on Level.
AI in this role
About the Role
Perplexity is seeking a hands-on Software Engineer to build and evolve the software, automations, and systems that power our security operations. This role focuses on engineering security tools and internal AI-driven agents that improve detection and response, vulnerability management, and the overall security posture of our products and infrastructure.
Responsibilities
Design, build, and maintain software and automation that improves our detection and response program, including alert enrichment, triage workflows, and investigation tooling.
Implement and enhance internal AI agents and security bots that assist with monitoring, investigations, reporting, and other security operation tasks.
Develop and operate systems and workflows that support the bug bounty and vulnerability disclosure program, including intake, triage, prioritization, and remediation tracking.
Partner with product and engineering teams to threat model new features and systems, propose mitigations, and add guardrails into designs and implementations.
Contribute to secure-by-default libraries, services, and patterns that make it easy for teams to build secure features.
Integrate security signals from cloud, endpoints, SaaS, and applications into cohesive pipelines and data models that support detection and analysis.
Build automation to reduce manual work in incident response, containment, and remediation.
Collaborate with security engineers and other software engineers to review designs and code, and to continuously improve our security tooling and platforms.
Qualifications
4+ years of experience as a software engineer with significant time spent building security-related tools, platforms, or automations, or in a security engineering role with strong software development responsibilities.
Proficiency in at least one major programming language (such as Python, Go, or TypeScript) and experience building production services, CLIs, or internal tools.
Experience integrating with security-relevant systems such as logging pipelines, SIEMs, EDR, cloud APIs, or identity platforms.
Practical experience with threat modeling, secure design, or application security reviews for services or features.
Experience operating or contributing to bug bounty or vulnerability management programs is a plus.
Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred) and modern SaaS environments.
Ability to work closely with cross-functional teams, own projects end-to-end, and ship pragmatic, high-impact improvements.
Bonus: Experience designing or improving AI-powered agents or automation used for security operations.
How we rate this
Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Security) at Perplexity rates 67 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.
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.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in software engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- This job starts at
- $220k
- Typical software engineer job
- $168k
This posting starts 31% above the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
- Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
- If you removed AI from this role, what would be left, and how do you decide what still needs a human?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: AI agents. 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.
Want an expert to read your CV for this job?
Free. Send your CV and the role you want next. We reply by email within 2 to 4 business days.
Get new software engineer jobs (Works on AI ●●●○ or higher) by email
One email a week with the new software engineer jobs (Works on AI ●●●○ or higher), each rated for how much AI is in the work. No recruiter spam, unsubscribe in one click.
Free. One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click.
Similar roles
Software Engineering roles that work on AI, at other companies.
What kind of AI work fits you?
Answer 12 practical questions in about three minutes. Get a simple profile, the work it points to, and live roles to explore next.
Find my next step