Member of Technical Staff (Secure Intelligence Institute)
$220k - $405k • Remote • San Francisco • FullTime
Posted 6h ago
About the job
Perplexity is seeking energetic researchers and engineers to join its Secure Intelligence Institute (SII), a flagship research center focused on advancing security, privacy, and trust in frontier intelligence. The SII aims to push the boundaries of AI security research, implement these advancements into Perplexity's systems, and share knowledge to benefit the wider AI ecosystem. As a member of SII, you will conduct original and impactful research to enhance the security and privacy of frontier intelligence systems. Your work should be both theoretically rigorous and practically applicable to improving the systems used by millions daily. You will leverage insights from operating large-scale AI systems and translate research findings, both internal and external, into practical improvements that safeguard Perplexity's users.
Responsibilities
- Develop threat models for AI-native products like browsers, search, and autonomous agents.
- Identify and analyze security and privacy threats across AI systems, infrastructure, and products.
- Create novel defenses, mitigations, and detection mechanisms for AI-native products.
- Build frameworks, benchmarks, and datasets to evaluate defense mechanism effectiveness.
- Collaborate with the Security Engineering team to implement research into security features and system architectures.
- Engage with academic and industry researchers in the external research network.
- Publish research findings at premier venues and contribute to the security research community.
Requirements
- PhD (or equivalent research experience) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, with a focus on security and/or privacy.
- Proven track record of publishing original research at top security conferences.
- Deep expertise in one or more of: security of agentic systems, systems security, web and applications security, program analysis, software security.
- Proficiency in Python; TypeScript, Go, and/or Rust are a plus.
- Ability to work independently, take ownership, and thrive in a fast-paced environment.
- Strong communication skills to translate complex technical information into actionable insights.