Staff Software Engineer, Search Platform

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Massachusetts.

📋 Description

• Take ownership of the Search Engine architecture, including technology direction (Vespa-based), document schema, query serving, and operational model.

• Lead the development of the Indexing Pipeline, which includes Temporal-orchestrated workflows that ingest, validate, transform, and store data into the search engine and availability store.

• Manage Availability through zone-based delivery filtering, schedule matching, and the data model that supports it, extracting from the legacy monolith and re-implementing as needed.

• Oversee the Two-Stage Filtering Architecture, which incorporates zone-based availability filtering followed by Vespa filtering and ranking.

• Propel search relevance and ranking strategy across various ordering contexts and customer types in collaboration with product and data teams.

• Establish clear, well-versioned APIs and contracts for the consumption of search and availability across all channels.

• Administer migration sequencing and manage risks throughout the phased rollout (Typeahead, Availability, Core Search).

• Create a foundation for measurement and experimentation that supports comprehensive evaluation, from CTR to order fulfillment.

• Facilitate collaborative design through white-boarding, technical discussions, and guiding teams toward clear architectural decisions.

• Collaborate with Platform Engineering on shared service patterns, Temporal, observability, secrets management, and CI/CD practices.

• Partner with product, data, and downstream consumers to address relevance, ranking signals, and API contracts.

• Serve as a technical multiplier by engaging in design reviews, code reviews, architectural guidance, and mentorship.

⛳️ Requirements

• Minimum of 8 years of professional software engineering experience.

• Extensive experience in designing, building, and fine-tuning search engines (Elasticsearch, Solr, OpenSearch, Vespa, or equivalent); leading a major search re-architecture or building from the ground up is highly preferred; experience with Vespa is a significant advantage.

• Strong expertise in Go, or a willingness to adopt it as a primary programming language.

• Familiarity with real-time data pipelines (Kafka, event streaming) for search indexing.

• Strong intuition for relevance and ranking, with the capability to translate product objectives into ranking signals and assess them using data.

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills related to collaborative system design and technical decision-making.

• A pragmatic and collaborative approach with a strong sense of ownership and systems thinking.

• Experience with workflow orchestration tools (Temporal, Airflow, or equivalent) is a plus.

• Knowledge of geospatial systems and spatial filtering is a plus.

🏝️ Benefits

• Health, dental, and FSA options.

• 401K plan with ezCater matching.

• Flexible PTO policy.

• 12 paid holidays each year.

• Stock options available.

• Opportunity for remote-hybrid work from our vibrant Boston office, your home, or a combination of both.

• Employee meal program and numerous additional perks available when working in our office.