Senior Backend Engineer, Search

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior Backend Engineer, Search based in United States.

This is a senior engineering opportunity focused on building and scaling high-performance search infrastructure for a rapidly growing productivity <platform.You> will work at the intersection of backend engineering, information retrieval, and AI to help users find exactly what they need in real time.The role centers on Postgres and OpenSearch-based services, with a strong emphasis on real-time indexing and search <serving.You> will improve relevance, accuracy, latency, and scalability while developing measurement frameworks that continuously raise search <quality.You> will also contribute to vector and semantic search capabilities that enable next-generation, AI-powered experiences.Working closely with backend, AI, and product teams, you will help integrate search capabilities into increasingly sophisticated product experiences.This is a hands-on role where your technical decisions will have a direct impact on the performance and usability of a global software platform.

Accountabilities

• Design, build, and scale robust backend search solutions capable of supporting a rapidly growing user base and high-volume workloads.
• Optimize search relevance, accuracy, query performance, and response times to deliver fast and highly useful results.
• Improve real-time indexing and ingestion pipelines so that search results remain accurate and up to date.
• Develop measurement frameworks, quality metrics, and evaluation processes to assess and continuously improve search performance.
• Build and enhance vector search and semantic search capabilities using modern embedding-based technologies.
• Optimize query parsing, indexing strategies, relevance tuning, and search-serving infrastructure.
• Collaborate with AI, backend engineering, and product teams to integrate search capabilities into new and existing product experiences.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex search infrastructure and performance issues at scale.
• Contribute to architectural decisions that ensure search systems remain reliable, scalable, and performant under heavy workloads.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of professional experience as a search engineer or in a closely related backend engineering role.
• Strong hands-on production experience with OpenSearch or Elasticsearch; experience with Solr is also relevant.
• Demonstrated experience building and operating high-scale, real-time data ingestion and search-serving systems in backend environments.
• Proven ability to optimize query parsing, indexing, relevance tuning, and search performance.
• Experience developing methods and metrics for measuring and improving search quality.
• Strong understanding of search ranking, relevance algorithms, and information retrieval principles.
• Experience with vector embeddings and semantic search implementations is highly valued.
• Backend development experience with TypeScript is a plus.
• Experience applying machine learning or natural language processing techniques to improve search relevance is advantageous.
• Strong problem-solving, system design, and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across engineering and product teams.
• Demonstrated AI fluency and willingness to incorporate AI tools and techniques into day-to-day engineering work.

Benefits

• Fully remote opportunity within the United States.
• Senior-level opportunity with significant ownership over core search infrastructure and technology.
• Opportunity to work on high-scale backend systems at the intersection of search, AI, and productivity technology.
• Direct influence on search quality, platform performance, and next-generation AI-powered user experiences.
• Collaborative environment with close partnership across backend engineering, AI, and product teams.
• Opportunity to work with modern search technologies including OpenSearch, real-time indexing, vector search, and semantic retrieval.
• Career growth through ownership of complex technical challenges and high-impact engineering initiatives.
• Inclusive, equal-opportunity workplace committed to considering qualified candidates fairly.
• Visa sponsorship for engineering and product roles may be considered based on the specific business needs of the role; sponsorship is not guaranteed.