AI Research Tech Lead

Perplexity is seeking an exceptional AI Research Tech Lead to drive our research strategy and lead the development of our in-house Online LLMs, the Sonar models. In this leadership role, you will set the macro research direction across different modalities, mentor a team of researchers, and take advantage of our rich query/answer dataset to continue scaling our Sonar model performance and deliver the SOTA Online LLM experience to our users.

What you'll do

• Define and execute the macro research direction across multiple modalities, including post-training LLMs for agent trajectories and future mid-training initiatives
• Lead strategic research planning and roadmap development to advance Sonar model capabilities
• Drive innovation in supervised and reinforcement learning techniques for query answering
• Collaborate with leadership to align research priorities with product and business objectives

What you need

• Minimum of 5 years of experience working on relevant AI/ML projects with 3+ years in a technical leadership role
• Proven track record of leading and mentoring technical and research teams
• A Computer Science graduate degree at a premier academic institution
• Deep expertise with large-scale LLMs and Deep Learning systems
• Strong programming skills with versatility across multiple languages and frameworks
• Demonstrated ability to set technical vision and drive execution
• Experience with pre-training and post-training techniques (self-supervised learning along with SFT/DPO/GRPO/PPO)
• Self-starter with exceptional ownership mentality and ability to work in ambiguous environments
• Passion for solving challenging problems and pushing the boundaries of AI research