Senior AI Search Engineer

Commercetools; Berlin; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% covered medical, dental, vision

Generous PTO and parental leave

Monthly health stipend and phone

401K match + development stipend

Remote-first with flexible hours

Job summary

Commercetools is seeking a Senior Search Engineer to shape the retrieval layer behind product discovery for leading commerce brands. You will work across the stack from query understanding to vector index cost, designing scalable, multi-tenant search functionalities in a Scala-based PaaS backend.

You will join a distributed, remote-first team focused on fast, affordable, and measurable retrieval for enterprise catalogs while collaborating with product management and DevOps.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience as a Software Engineer working in search.
• Experience with building search solutions on top of engines such as Elasticsearch (preferred), Solr, OpenSearch, or similar.
• Experience using modern search stacks and strategies to optimize search relevance (Vector and Hybrid Search, Learning to rank, Re-ranker).
• Experience developing REST APIs and knowledge of scalable event-driven architectures (incl., queues, notification topics, sharding, replication, load balancing, and failover).
• Experience with infrastructure work and other technologies like Helm, Kubernetes, and Rust.
• Experience working with Scala or other functional programming languages.
• Fluent English communication skills to work in international teams.
• A genuine curiosity for using AI tools to work smarter and put them into practice in your role.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement search functionalities in a PaaS ecommerce Scala backend.
• Develop in a scalable and multi-tenant architecture.
• Analyze user needs and discuss technical approaches.
• Test software components regarding usability, functionality, and performance, and work closely with Product Management and DevOps.
• Take part in on-call rotations with a worldwide distributed team for production systems.

Skills

Search engineering

Elasticsearch

REST APIs

Kubernetes

Rust

Scala

AI tools

Vector search

Learning to rank

Hybrid search

Tools

Helm

OpenSearch

Rust

Job description

• As a Senior Search Engineer on our Discovery Team, you will build the retrieval layer behind product discovery for some of the world’s most demanding commerce brands
• Search is changing shape
• Shoppers type full sentences instead of keywords, and increasingly the client calling our API is an AI agent rather than a person
• We are on the path to take our semantic and hybrid retrieval to general availability, and tackling the hard problems: making it fast, affordable, measurably better across enterprise catalogs, and working out what comes after it
• You would join that work at every layer, from query understanding down to the vector index and the cost of a single query
• Design and implement search functionalities in a PaaS ecommerce Scala backend
• Develop in a scalable and multi-tenant architecture
• Analyze user needs and discuss technical approaches
• Test software components regarding usability, functionality, and performance, and work closely with Product Management and DevOps
• Take part in on-call rotations with a worldwide distributed team for production systems

Benefits

• 100% covered premiums for medical, dental, and vision insurance for you, dependents, and spouse/partner
• Generous time off package including PTO, parental leave, company holidays, sick time, and volunteer time off
• Monthly health membership and phone stipend
• Compensation benefits including 401K company match and an annual professional development stipend
• Flexible, family-friendly working hours - we are a remote first company

Great ideas come from many paths, and your unique perspective matters more than checking every box. What matters most is the mindset you bring to the workYou’re a creative problem-solver who is wired to find solutions. You confidently dive into complex challenges and have a talent for making them simple for others. Your curiosity drives you to constantly grow and contribute to an environment of trust and teamworkFluent English communication skills to work in international teamsAspiration to constantly improve yourself and learn new technologies, concepts, etcExperience with building search solutions on top of engines, such as Elasticsearch (preferred), Solr, OpenSearch, or similarAI Aptitude: A genuine curiosity for using AI tools to work smarter and more effectively, paired with a drive to learn and put them into practice in your role5+ years of experience as a Software Engineer working in searchExperience using modern search stacks and strategies to optimize search relevance (Vector and Hybrid Search, Learning to rank, Re-ranker)Experience developing REST APIs and knowledge of scalable event-driven architectures (incl., queues, notification topics, sharding, replication, load balancing, and failover)Experience with infrastructure work and other technologies like Helm, Kubernetes, and RustExperience working with Scala or other functional programming languages