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Engineering Site Lead

Perplexity AI

Skills

Required

  • infrastructure / cloud infrastructure / AI infrastructure
  • AI/ML
  • distributed systems
  • cloud platforms
  • AWS / GCP / Azure
  • infrastructure automation
  • LLM
  • search
  • software engineering
  • open-source infrastructure / AI infrastructure projects

Preferred

  • modern infrastructure technologies
  • Kubernetes
  • Terraform
  • container orchestration
  • CI/CD
  • Model serving
  • deployment at scale

Join Perplexity as the Engineering Site Lead in London. You'll establish and scale our London office, build a high-performance engineering culture, and directly manage infrastructure teams. This role requires deep technical expertise, people management experience, and a passion for building inclusive teams.

Establish and lead Perplexity's London office, setting the cultural foundation and operating principles.

Passion for building inclusive, diverse, and high-performing teams

Experience working in fast-paced, high-growth technology companies

Responsibilities

  • Build a collaborative, high-performance engineering culture that aligns with Perplexity's values while embracing the strengths of the London tech ecosystem.
  • Directly manage and mentor one or more infrastructure or AI infrastructure teams in London, setting technical direction and strategy for London-based initiatives.
  • Demonstrated ability to set technical vision and drive execution across multiple teams
  • ML training and inference pipelines

Requirements

MBA or advanced technical degree

  • 3+ years of people management experience, including building and scaling teams
  • Deep technical expertise in distributed systems, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and infrastructure automation
  • Background in building infrastructure for LLM training or inference
  • Previous experience as a site lead, office lead, or similar multi-team leadership role
  • Experience at companies focused on AI/ML, search, or large-scale consumer applications
  • 10+ years of experience in software engineering with 5+ years in infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, or AI infrastructure roles
  • Active involvement in the London or European tech community
  • Experience scaling teams from 0 to 20+ engineers
  • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
  • Contributions to open-source infrastructure or AI infrastructure projects

GPU infrastructure and orchestration

  • Experience with infrastructure supporting large-scale AI/ML systems, including:
  • Proven track record of establishing or significantly growing an engineering site or office

Preferred

  • Strong understanding of modern infrastructure technologies: Kubernetes, Terraform, container orchestration, CI/CD systems
  • Model serving and deployment at scale