Staff Backend Software Engineer - API PlatformPantera Capital • San Francisco, CA, United States

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Staff Backend Software Engineer - API Platform

Pantera Capital • San Francisco, CA, United States

5 days ago

Job type

Full-time

Job description

Location

San Francisco, New York City, Seattle

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

Hybrid

Department

Platform & Infrastructure

Compensation

$180K $300K Offers Equity

Perplexity is redefining how people search, reason, and interact with information. Our API team sits at the core of this vision, designing and operating the high-performance interfaces that expose Perplexitys intelligence to developers, enterprises, and products worldwide. This team owns the architecture, reliability, and security of the APIs that power everything from real-time LLM queries to enterprise-scale integrations.

As a Staff Backend Engineer, you will shape the technical foundation of Perplexitys external platform. Youll architect distributed systems, optimize performance at scale, and set engineering standards that ensure our APIs are fast, resilient, and a delight to build on.

Key Responsibilities

Design, build, and operate mission-critical APIs in Python, Go, or Rust optimized for low latency, high throughput, and strong consistency.

Lead major technical initiatives, from new platform components to multi-team system redesigns.

Improve system reliability and security by implementing rate limiting, authentication, observability (metrics, tracing, logging), and automated testing.

Collaborate across teams to determine when to extend existing systems versus build new, specialized services.Translate customer needs into scalable platform capabilities and generalized API features.

Uphold engineering excellence through design reviews, code quality, and internal documentation.

Qualifications

5+ years of backend engineering experience with Python, Go, or Rust.

Strong understanding of high-traffic API design : versioning, schema evolution, idempotency, auth patterns, and performance tuning.

Hands?on experience running AWS services, plus fluency with Kubernetes, CI / CD, and modern DevOps practices.

Experience with LLM or natural?language APIs (latency tuning, streaming, model orchestration) is a strong plus.

Strong customer empathy and product sense, ensuring the APIs you build are ergonomic, well?documented, and easy to adopt.

Compensation & Benefits

Our compensation range for this role is $180,000 - $300,000

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.

Compensation Range : $180K - $300K

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Staff Backend Software Engineer API Platform • San Francisco, CA, United States

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