Engineering Site Lead

Job description

Perplexity is revolutionizing how people discover and interact with information through AI-powered search and knowledge tools. As we expand our global footprint, we're establishing a strategic presence in London to drive innovation and growth across Europe. The Role: We're seeking an exceptional Site Lead to establish and scale our London office. This is a unique opportunity to shape Perplexity's presence in one of the world's leading tech hubs, building teams and culture from the ground up while driving technical excellence in infrastructure and AI systems. As Site Lead, you'll serve as the face of Perplexity in London, responsible for building our technical organization, fostering a world-class engineering culture, and directly managing one or more infrastructure teams. You'll report to senior leadership and work cross-functionally with teams across our global footprint. The individual in this role will manage teams in LON themselves while also facilitating. Responsibilities: Site Leadership & Culture - Establish and lead Perplexity's London office, setting the cultural foundation and operating principles - Build a collaborative, high-performance engineering culture that aligns with Perplexity's values while embracing the strengths of the London tech ecosystem - Serve as the primary point of contact for all London-based activities and represent the site in company-wide strategic discussions - Partner with People/HR, Finance, and Operations to ensure seamless site operations - Drive local community engagement, partnerships, and Perplexity's brand presence in the London and European tech community Technical Leadership: - Directly manage and mentor one or more infrastructure or AI infrastructure teams in London (5-15+ engineers) - Set technical direction and strategy for London-based infrastructure initiatives in alignment with company-wide goals - Drive architectural decisions and technical excellence across teams - Ensure robust systems for deployment, monitoring, scalability, and reliability of infrastructure supporting AI/ML workloads - Collaborate with engineering leaders globally to align on technical standards, best practices, and cross-site initiatives Team Building & Talent: - Build and scale high-performing infrastructure and AI infrastructure teams through strategic hiring - Develop and execute talent acquisition strategy for the London site in partnership with recruiting - Create career development frameworks and growth opportunities for engineers - Foster technical mentorship and knowledge sharing across teams and sites Cross-functional Collaboration: - Partner with Product, Engineering, and Research teams globally to understand infrastructure needs and deliver solutions - Coordinate with other site leads and engineering leaders to ensure effective cross-site collaboration - Contribute to company-wide infrastructure strategy and roadmap planning - Facilitate knowledge transfer and best practice sharing across global teams Qualifications: Required - 10+ years of experience in software engineering with 5+ years in infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, or AI infrastructure roles - 3+ years of people management experience, including building and scaling teams - Proven track record of establishing or significantly growing an engineering site or office - Deep technical expertise in distributed systems, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and infrastructure automation - Experience with infrastructure supporting large-scale AI/ML systems, including: - GPU infrastructure and orchestration - ML training and inference pipelines - Model serving and deployment at scale - Strong understanding of modern infrastructure technologies: Kubernetes, Terraform, container orchestration, CI/CD systems - Demonstrated ability to set technical vision and drive execution across multiple teams - Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills - Experience working in fast-paced, high-growth technology companies - Passion for building inclusive, diverse, and high-performing teams Preferred - Experience at companies focused on AI/ML, search, or large-scale consumer applications - Previous experience as a site lead, office lead, or similar multi-team leadership role - Background in building infrastructure for LLM training or inference - Contributions to open-source infrastructure or AI infrastructure projects - Experience scaling teams from 0 to 20+ engineers - Active involvement in the London or European tech community - MBA or advanced technical degree What Success Looks Like: 30 Days - Deep understanding of Perplexity's infrastructure, technology stack, and organizational structure - Established relationships with key stakeholders across engineering, product, and leadership - Initial hiring plan and culture strategy for London site established - Help the Search, API, AI and Infra teams build out their hiring pipelines 90 Days - Core infrastructure team established and ramping in London - Clear technical roadmap and priorities defined for London-based teams - Site culture and operating rhythms established (team meetings, all-hands, cross-site syncs) - London office actively participating in company-wide infrastructure initiatives 1 Year - London site operating as a high-functioning hub with 15-30+ engineers - Infrastructure teams delivering measurable impact on system reliability, performance, and scalability - Strong talent brand established in London market with healthy hiring pipeline - London recognized internally as a strategic site contributing to Perplexity's technical leadership Why Join Perplexity - Ground-floor opportunity to build and lead a strategic site for a fast-growing AI company - Work on cutting-edge AI infrastructure challenges at massive scale - Shape the culture and technical direction of an entire office - Competitive compensation including equity - Comprehensive benefits package - Flexible work environment - Opportunity to make a significant impact on how millions of people access and interact with information Location: London, United Kingdom (Hybrid) Perplexity is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.