AI Security Engineer

Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine founded in December 2022 and growing rapidly as one of the world’s leading AI platforms. Perplexity has raised over $1B in venture investment from some of the world’s most visionary and successful leaders, including Elad Gil, Daniel Gross, Jeff Bezos, Accel, IVP, NEA, NVIDIA, Samsung, and many more. Our objective is to build accurate, trustworthy AI that powers decision-making for people and assistive AI wherever decisions are being made. Throughout human history, change and innovation have always been driven by curious people. Today, curious people use Perplexity to answer more than 780 million queries every month–a number that’s growing rapidly for one simple reason: everyone can be curious. 

Perplexity is seeking a highly skilled, experienced, and hands-on AI Security Engineer to join our security team, driving the protection of next-generation AI systems against adversarial threats. In this role, you’ll design and implement robust mechanisms to secure self-hosted models, LLM APIs, agents, MCPs, and the core AI stack. You'll empower developers with tools and guidance, as well as technical contributions, enabling innovation while ensuring AI security is strong by default.

Our tech stack includes Python, NextJS, TypeScript, Docker, AWS, Kubernetes, and PostgreSQL.

Responsibilities

• Define, build, and refine mechanisms to secure AI systems (including self-hosted models, LLM APIs, agents, MCPs, and other core components of the AI stack) against adversarial behavior of all kinds
• Understand technically complex AI systems, identify potential weaknesses in their architecture, and implement improvements
• At least 50% of time performing hands-on remediation. Also working closely with peer engineers to drive remediations
• Plan and carry out threat modeling activities and realistic threat simulations across our offerings
• Conduct cybersecurity evaluations and lead AI security assessments in a cross-functional environment
• Develop initiatives that improve our capabilities to effectively evaluate AI systems and enhance the organization's prevention, detection, response, and threat hunting capabilities
• Provide guidance and education to developers to help deter and prevent threats

Qualifications

• Hands-on coding and prompting experience.
• Bachelor of Science or Master of Science in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience
• Be a technical and process subject matter expert regarding AI security services and attacker tactics, techniques, and procedures
• Good understanding of LLMs, AI architecture patterns, machine learning models, and related technologies such as MCP
• Understanding of application security principles and secure coding practices
• Experience developing and implementing security procedures and policies
• Strong problem-solving, project management, leadership, and communication skills
• Self-motivated with a willingness to take ownership of tasks
• 4+ years of industry experience

The cash compensation range for this role is $200,000 - $280,000.

Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including, experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.
 
Equity: In addition to the base salary, equity may be part of the total compensation package.
Benefits: Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance for you and your dependents. Includes a 401(k) plan.