Senior Software Engineer, Search

Aiven; Helsinki; On-site; EUR 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity plan

Hybrid work policy

Professional Development Plan budget

Holistic wellbeing support

Global Time Off Commitment

Job summary

Aiven, located in Helsinki, is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to lead the core development of Aiven for OpenSearch. You will focus on architecture, reliability, and service availability, while driving the integration of AI-optimized infrastructure.

This role requires deep expertise in OpenSearch, including automated management systems and performance tuning. Aiven offers a hybrid work model and various global benefits to support your professional growth.

Qualifications

• Expertise in resource management and indexing strategies in OpenSearch.
• Track record in solving complex operational challenges.
• Experience in hardware acceleration for data services.

Responsibilities

• Design and improve automated recovery systems for OpenSearch clusters.
• Research and deploy GPU-powered instances for intensive workloads.
• Own the health and reliability of the OpenSearch platform.

Skills

Deep technical knowledge of OpenSearch or Elasticsearch

Building highly available, resilient distributed systems

Experience with GPU-based instances

Designing automated recovery systems

Interest in vector database implementations

Job description

We’re a global team of over 400 people, working together to push the boundaries of open‑source technology and multi‑cloud solutions. Our vision is to help developers, builders, and creators bring their ideas to life with speed and simplicity, by providing a cloud data platform that makes open‑source databases, search, streaming, and application infrastructure easily accessible to everyone.

The Role

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer dedicated to the core development of our Aiven for OpenSearch service. This role is a highly technical and strategic contributor position focused on the internal architecture, reliability, and evolution of our search offering.

In this role, you will work on how we manage and tune OpenSearch at scale, while spearheading our transition into AI‑optimized infrastructure. You will be a key driver of service availability and the technical lead for deploying next‑generation hardware within our search clusters.

What You’ll Do

• Autonomic Systems: Design and implement new and improve existing automated management, self‑healing recovery mechanisms, and performance‑tuning logic for OpenSearch clusters.
• Next‑Gen Infrastructure: Research, design, and deploy the first GPU‑powered instances within the Aiven ecosystem to support intensive search and AI workloads.
• AI Node Development: Develop and integrate specialized AI node types to enhance OpenSearch’s capability in handling modern machine learning tasks.
• Engineering Ownership: Own the health, reliability, and availability metrics of our OpenSearch platform.

What We’re Looking For

• Search Mastery: Deep technical knowledge of OpenSearch or Elasticsearch internals, particularly in resource management, indexing strategies, and query optimization.
• Reliability & Operations: A passion for building highly available, resilient distributed systems and a proven track record of solving complex operational challenges.
• Hardware: Interest or experience in hardware acceleration, specifically deploying and managing GPU‑based instances for data services.
• Automation Mindset: Proven experience in designing automated recovery systems and performance‑tuning algorithms.
• Modern Search Patterns: A strong interest in the evolving landscape, including Vector Database implementations, hybrid search and RAG (Retrieval‑Augmented Generation).

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with ML frameworks and integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) with Search engines.
• Prior experience within a managed service (SaaS) provider or a high‑growth startup environment.

Global Benefits

Our global benefits are designed to help you thrive and grow, personally and professionally:

• Participate in Aiven’s equity plan.
• Balance work and life with our hybrid work policy.
• Choose the equipment you need to set yourself up for success.
• Use your Professional Development Plan budget for learning opportunities.
• Receive holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program.
• Inquire about our Global Time Off Commitment (Parental and Sick Leave, as well as Personal Time).
• Enjoy country‑specific benefits for our global cast.

Equal Opportunities

Aiven provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, marital and family status or any other similar personal attributes. Aiven complies with applicable local laws governing non‑discrimination in employment in every location in which the company operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, training and any other terms and conditions related to employment.

At Aiven we are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities or special needs in our working environment and job application procedures. We make all reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities or who otherwise need support to thrive in the workplace. We are committed to continuously improving workplace accessibility. There is an option to request a discussion in the application process but if you have any questions before applying please write to us at [e-mail].

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