At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and build backend services for fraud detection and prevention.
- Company: Join Perplexity's innovative fraud prevention team.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, flexible work options, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with a focus on innovation and career advancement.
- Why this job: Make a real impact by protecting users and enhancing product security.
- Qualifications: 5+ years in backend systems; experience with Rust, Go, or C++ preferred.
The predicted salary is between 59400 - 72600 £ per year.
About the role
Perplexity's fraud prevention team protects our products, users, and infrastructure from fraud and abuse across the whole lifecycle: sign-up, authentication, payments, API usage, and product features. We build and operate a real-time decisioning platform together with the surrounding systems: data pipelines for detection and model training, integrations with product and payment systems, and internal tooling for investigation and response. As a software engineer on the team, you will own services end to end, from design to production operations, and work closely with fraud analysts, ML engineers, and product teams to make abuse expensive and legitimate usage frictionless.
Responsibilities
- Design, build, and operate high-throughput, low-latency backend services for fraud detection and prevention
- Build data pipelines and real-time feature computation that power detections and ML models
- Collect and process trust signals
- Integrate fraud decisions into product, auth, and payment flows across Perplexity
- Own reliability of production services: observability, alerting, safe rollouts, incident response
- Build internal tooling for investigation, enforcement, and auditability
- Partner with fraud analysts to turn new abuse patterns into production detections quickly
Qualifications
- 5+ years building and operating high-throughput, latency-sensitive backend systems in production
- Strong systems programming skills; Rust, Go, or C++ experience preferred (we write Rust)
- Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Terraform and cloud infrastructure
- Solid data fundamentals: stream/batch computations, caching and storage trade-offs
- Pragmatic, ownership-driven approach: ship incrementally, measure, and make failures degrade safely
Nice to have
- Fraud prevention, anti-abuse, or payments-risk domain experience
- Experience serving ML models in production
- Client-side experience (web or mobile) for signal collection
Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Fraud Prevention) in London employer: Perplexity
Perplexity is an exceptional employer that fosters a collaborative and innovative work culture, where your contributions directly impact the evolution of cutting-edge search technologies. With a hybrid work model in vibrant cities like Belgrade, London, or Berlin, employees enjoy flexibility alongside opportunities for professional growth and development in a dynamic environment. Join us to be part of a team that values creativity and excellence, while also providing competitive benefits and a supportive atmosphere for personal and career advancement.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Fraud Prevention) in London
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Perplexity or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Perplexity.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Perplexity.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Perplexity that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Fraud Prevention) in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Perplexity.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Perplexity and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Perplexity
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Perplexity uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
