Jobs › Companies › Perplexity › Engineering Manager, (Multimodal)

About this Engineering Manager, (Multimodal) role at Perplexity

Perplexity · Onsite · San Francisco

In 2026, we launched Computer, the defining product for the new era of agentic AI. We've scaled beyond the millions of people using Perplexity every day for research, shopping, investing and curiosity into a new paradigm of using AI to transform knowledge into action.

The Multimodal team builds the experiences and infrastructure that move AI interaction beyond touch and text: realtime voice, vision, and the platform systems behind them. We own the full path from a user speaking into a device to an answer coming back: the realtime session infrastructure that connects clients to frontier audio models, the backend orchestration that routes, records, and supervises live sessions, and the SDK that powers voice and multimodal experiences across Perplexity's apps.

As Engineering Manager for Multimodal, you will lead the team building realtime voice and multimodal experiences across Perplexity. You'll hire and develop engineers, set technical direction, and drive new products at the intersection of voice, vision, and agents.

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead the team building realtime voice and multimodal experiences across Perplexity, taking new products from first prototype to production launch.

  • Own the team's roadmap, deciding which voice and vision experiences to build next and what infrastructure they need to succeed.

  • Hire and develop engineers, giving them ownership of meaningful technical problems and the feedback to grow.

  • Shape the architecture behind the full voice experience, from a user speaking into a device to models, tools, and agents responding.

  • Lead the systems that turn live conversations into action, connecting voice models to tools, agents, and long-running tasks.

  • Guide the team through the latency, reliability, and scaling challenges of live voice, including session recovery and performance under load.

  • Partner with SDK, client, infrastructure, and model teams to turn new audio and vision capabilities into experiences people can use across our apps.

  • Use user feedback and production performance to improve the experience after launch and decide where the team should invest next.

Qualifications

  • Experience managing engineering teams, including hiring, coaching, and performance management.

  • A strong software engineering background in backend or distributed systems.

  • Experience designing and operating production services in rapidly scaling environments on AWS or similar cloud infrastructure.

  • A track record of leading teams to ship complex projects in a fast-moving environment.

  • Strong product judgment and the ability to translate user problems into clear technical priorities.

  • Clear communication and the ability to work effectively across teams.

  • Experience with Rust, Python, Go, or similar languages. We work primarily in Rust and Python.

  • Genuine interest and adoption of AI products and willingness to learn quickly.

Nice to have

  • Experience with realtime media systems: voice, audio streaming, WebRTC, or low-latency transport.

  • Experience integrating LLMs, speech models, or computer vision into production systems.

  • Experience with agent frameworks, tool-calling architectures, or sandboxed execution environments.

  • Experience leading projects across backend services, client SDKs, and user-facing applications.

  • Time spent leading a team at a fast-growing startup or in a high-ownership environment.

Ready to apply to Perplexity?
Apply to Perplexity

How this Engineering Manager salary compares

This role pays $352,500/yr — above the typical range for Engineering Manager roles.

$159,880 median $238,500 $350,904

Typical range $194,100–$280,500/yr, from 431 comparable Engineering Manager listings on JobsRadar (pay annualized to USD). See Engineering Manager salary insights →

Similar jobs

Commure
Senior Engineering Manager, Financial Data, Reporting & Analytics
Commure
⚡ Apply early Mountain View, CA Hybrid $240,000–$275,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 20h ago
TW
Senior Engineering Manager, Security Platform
Twitch
⚡ Apply early San Francisco, CA Onsite $184,900–$250,200
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 20h ago
TW
Senior Engineering Manager, Security Platform
Twitch
⚡ Apply early Irvine, CA Onsite $184,900–$250,200
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 20h ago
TW
Senior Engineering Manager, Security Platform
Twitch
⚡ Apply early Seattle, WA Onsite $184,900–$250,200
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 20h ago
AM
Senior Manager, Reliability Engineering
Amperesand
⚡ Apply early San Francisco, California, Uni... Hybrid $220,000–$240,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 21h ago
AM
Manager, Supplier Industrialization Engineering
Amperesand
⚡ Apply early Reno, Nevada, United States; S... Hybrid
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 21h ago
Hightouch
Manager, Sales Development - Ad Studio (SF, NYC or Denver)
Hightouch
⚡ Apply early San Francisco Bay Area Onsite
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 21h ago
Astranis
Manufacturing Engineering Manager (PCBA)
Astranis
⚡ Apply early San Francisco Onsite $150,000–$230,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 22h ago
Astranis
Electronics Engineering Manager
Astranis
⚡ Apply early San Francisco Onsite $160,000–$215,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 22h ago

Sign up for suggestions tailored to the jobs you open and the searches you save.

More jobs at Perplexity

See all jobs at Perplexity →

Apply now
🤖

Whoa — hold up

JobsRadar was built for real people having a rough time in their job search — not for automated requests. You're clicking way too fast and you're now temporarily blocked.

Come back later. If you're genuinely job hunting, we've got your back — just act like a human.

Catch your next role the second it’s posted.

Create a free account and we’ll watch the boards for you — the instant a job matches your search, it lands in your inbox or Telegram. No digging, no refreshing.

Create free account

Free forever · takes 30 seconds · already have one?

Get an edge on your job hunt.

Join our Telegram channel for the stuff that helps you land the role — salary benchmarks, the weekly market pulse, and new-feature drops. No spam, just signal.

Join the channel — it's free