Engineering Site Lead
Perplexity · London, United Kingdom · 1mo ago
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.