Data scientist with Java expertise

Luxoft; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading IT consultancy in the United Kingdom is seeking an experienced Data Scientist/Machine Learning Engineer to modernize an eCommerce platform for a major retail client. The role requires strong expertise in Java, Python, and information retrieval technologies like Lucene and Solr. Ideal candidates will have a deep understanding of NLP techniques and experience deploying ML systems in production environments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Data Science or Machine Learning Engineering, focusing on Information Retrieval or Semantic Search.
• Strong programming experience in both Java and Python.
• Deep knowledge of Lucene, Apache Solr, or Elasticsearch.
• Experience with Vector Databases and Semantic Search techniques.
• Strong understanding of NLP techniques.
• Experience deploying and maintaining ML/search systems in production.
• Solid understanding of software engineering best practices.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize search solutions leveraging Lucene/Solr and modern embeddings.
• Apply machine learning techniques to improve search relevance.
• Develop scalable data pipelines and APIs.
• Integrate ML models into production systems.
• Evaluate and monitor search performance metrics.
• Collaborate with software engineers and data engineers.

Skills

Data Science

Machine Learning

Information Retrieval

Semantic Search

Java

Python

NLP techniques

Tools

Lucene

Apache Solr

Elasticsearch

Vector Databases

Spring Boot

FastAPI

AWS

Azure

GCP

Kubernetes

Docker

Job description

Overview

Project description

The primary goal of the project is the modernization, maintenance and development of an eCommerce platform for a big US-based retail company, serving millions of omnichannel customers each week. Solutions are delivered by several Product Teams focused on different domains - Customer, Loyalty, Search and Browse, Data Integration, Cart. Current overriding priorities are new brands onboarding, re-architecture, database migrations, migration of microservices to a unified cloud-native solution without any disruption to business.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize semantic and vector-based search solutions leveraging Lucene/Solr and modern embeddings.


• Apply machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing techniques to improve search relevance and ranking.


• Develop scalable data pipelines and APIs for indexing, retrieval, and model inference.


• Integrate ML models and search capabilities into production systems.


• Evaluate, fine-tune, and monitor search performance metrics.


• Collaborate with software engineers, data engineers, and product teams to translate business needs into technical implementations.


• Stay current with advancements in search technologies, LLMs, and semantic retrieval frameworks.

Must have

• 5+ years of experience in Data Science or Machine Learning Engineering, with a focus on Information Retrieval or Semantic Search.


• Strong programming experience in both Java and Python (production-level code, not just prototyping).


• Deep knowledge of Lucene, Apache Solr, or Elasticsearch (indexing, query tuning, analyzers, scoring models).


• Experience with Vector Databases, Embeddings, and Semantic Search techniques.


• Strong understanding of NLP techniques (tokenization, embeddings, transformers, etc.).


• Experience deploying and maintaining ML/search systems in production.


• Solid understanding of software engineering best practices (CI/CD, testing, version control, code review).

Nice to have

• Experience of work in distributed teams, with US customers


• Experience with LLMs, RAG pipelines, and vector retrieval frameworks.


• Knowledge of Spring Boot, FastAPI, or similar backend frameworks.


• Familiarity with Kubernetes, Docker, and cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP).


• Experience with MLOps and model monitoring tools.


• Contributions to open-source search or ML projects.