Cognition
Medium (~300)
Perplexity AI
Mid (~500)
Best For
Cognition
Best for: Elite engineers who want to build frontier AI coding agents and own a meaningful equity stake
Perplexity AI
Best for: Builders who thrive on speed and want massive user-facing impact at a rocketship
Ratings
CognitionPerplexity AI
3.8
4.7
Overall
3.2
3.3
Work-Life Balance
3.9
4.8
Culture & Values
3.8
4.5
Comp & Benefits
3.6
4.5
Senior Mgmt
3.6
4.2
Career Opps
👍 76% Recommend
👤 80% CEO Approval (Scott Wu)
👍 92% Recommend
👤 95% CEO Approval (Aravind Srinivas)
Culture Values
Cognition only
No unique values
Perplexity AI only
🌱 Learning & Growth
Shared
⚙️ Engineering-Driven🚀 Ship Fast & Iterate💎 Strong Comp & Equity🎯 Direct Product Impact
Pros & Cons
Cognition
- Elite engineering team with strong equity
- Cutting-edge AI agent work
- High-intensity startup pace
- In-person SF expectations
Perplexity AI
- Fastest-growing AI product — real users, real revenue, genuine product-market fit
- Small team, massive impact per engineer — your work ships to millions quickly
- Startup intensity — expect long hours and high expectations
- Growing pains as the team scales — roles and responsibilities shift frequently
Bottom Line
Cognition
Choose Cognition if you want world-class AI agent research (makers of Devin) with strong equity upside — but expect top-tier intensity and mandatory in-person in San Francisco.
Perplexity AI
Choose Perplexity if you want the fastest-growing AI product and huge per-engineer impact — but expect startup intensity.
Open Roles
Cognition — 62 jobs
💻 Engineering
21
💼 Sales / GTM
10
📊 Data
3
⚖️ Legal
2
⚙️ Operations
2
💰 Finance
1
👤 HR / People
1
📣 Marketing
1
🧠 ML / AI
1
Perplexity AI — 74 jobs
💻 Engineering
37
🧠 ML / AI
8
📊 Data
5
⚖️ Legal
4
📣 Marketing
3
⚙️ Operations
3
💼 Sales / GTM
2
🎧 Support
2
👤 HR / People
1
📋 Product
1
Summary
Cognition scores 3.8/5.0 on Glassdoor with a 3.2 work-life balance rating. Perplexity AI scores 4.7/5.0 overall with a 3.3 WLB. That’s a 0.9-point gap on overall satisfaction.
Both companies share these culture values: Engineering-Driven, Ship Fast & Iterate, Strong Comp & Equity, Direct Product Impact. Perplexity AI also emphasizes Learning & Growth.
On the hiring front, Cognition has 62 open roles and Perplexity AI has 74 open roles.