Engineering Manager, Search Platform (Remote)

Socket.dev; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 195,000 - 255,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

12 paid holidays

401K with ezCater match

Health/dental/FSA

Job summary

ezCater is seeking an Engineering Manager for its Search Platform in a Boston hybrid setup. You will lead the team responsible for how customers discover restaurants, including the search engine, indexing pipeline, and availability services.

This position guides architecture, delivery, and operational maturity during a major replatform. Reporting to the Director of Engineering, you will mentor engineers, review designs, and partner with product, data, and AI/ML teams to optimize relevance and

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including leadership in complex backend or platform environments.
• Engineering management experience with hiring, developing and retaining engineers.
• Deep credibility in search or retrieval systems (Vespa/Elasticsearch/OpenSearch/Solr) and related re-architecture work.
• Strong backend depth in distributed, event-driven systems; Go experience preferred.
• Experience with indexing pipelines, document models, and event-streaming patterns.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery and technical quality across query serving, indexing, availability, and APIs.
• Set technical direction for the search stack including architecture, ranking, and migration sequencing.
• Own the freshness and correctness of the index and availability domain.
• Review designs, challenge assumptions, and help the team de-risk architecture and delivery decisions.
• Build a culture of measurement, experimentation, and continuous improvement in search quality and platform reliability.
• Coach, develop, and grow engineers with clear expectations and a high technical bar.
• Prioritize ruthlessly to reduce technical risk and unblock downstream teams.
• Partner with product, data, AI/ML, and platform engineering on signals, experimentation, and shared infrastructure.
• Establish clear ownership boundaries and scalable platform foundations.

Skills

Software engineering

Engineering management

Search/retrieval systems

Go backend

Indexing pipelines

Observability

Cross-functional leadership

Tools

Vespa

Elasticsearch

OpenSearch

Solr

Job description

ezCater is the #1 food tech platform for workplaces in the US. The company makes it easy for any organization to manage its food needs and order from over 125,000 restaurants nationwide. For workplaces, ezCater provides flexible and scalable solutions for everything from employee meal programs to one-off meetings, all backed by 24/7 service and business-grade reliability. For restaurant partners, ezCater helps grow their business by bringing them new high-value customers and large orders.

Search is the front door of the ezCater marketplace. Every browse, search, filter, and discovery experience runs through the systems this team owns, directly shaping customer experience, order volume, and our long-term platform advantage.

As the Engineering Manager of our Search Platform, you’ll lead the team responsible for how customers discover restaurants across ezCater, including the search engine, the indexing pipeline that feeds it, and the availability services that determine which restaurants can fulfill an order. We’re actively replatforming search, and this role will help strengthen the team while guiding the architecture, delivery, and operational maturity of that new foundation.

This is a technical management role reporting to the Director of Engineering. You'll manage engineers directly, stay close to key technical decisions, and help the team improve relevance, freshness, reliability, and platform usability for internal partners.

What You’ll Do

• Lead delivery and technical quality across query serving, indexing, availability, and the APIs and contracts other teams depend on.
• Set technical direction for the search stack, including engine architecture, document schema, indexing and query patterns, ranking strategy, and migration sequencing.
• Own the freshness and correctness of the index and the availability domain so customers see restaurants that can actually fulfill an order.
• Stay close to the technical work by reviewing designs, challenging assumptions, and helping the team de-risk architecture and delivery decisions.
• Build a culture of measurement, experimentation, and continuous improvement in search quality, platform reliability, and operational performance.
• Coach, develop, and grow engineers through direct feedback, clear expectations, and a high technical bar for search engineering.
• Prioritize ruthlessly and sequence work effectively to reduce technical risk, improve execution, and unblock downstream teams.
• Partner closely with product, data, AI/ML, and platform engineering on relevance signals, experimentation, personalization, and shared infrastructure.
• Help the team build a strong foundation for the future, with clear ownership boundaries, strong engineering habits, and a platform others can confidently build on.

What You Have

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including experience leading teams or serving as a technical lead in complex backend or platform environments.
• Engineering management experience, with a track record of hiring, developing, and retaining strong engineers.
• Deep technical credibility in search or retrieval systems such as Vespa, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, or Solr, ideally through a major re-architecture or build-from-scratch effort.
• Strong backend depth in distributed, event-driven systems; Go experience is preferred.
• Experience with indexing pipelines, document models, and event-streaming patterns that keep results fresh and correct.
• Strong instincts for relevance and ranking, and the ability to translate product goals into signals, evaluation approaches, and technical decisions.
• Experience with observability, production operations, and safe rollouts for correctness-critical systems.
• The judgment to balance technical depth, people leadership, and cross-functional partnership without losing clarity or ownership.

The national total target cash compensation range for this position, including base salary and bonus target, is $195,000–$255,000 annually.*

*Please note: Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise and region & may vary from the amount above. This range does not represent additional compensation benefits (such as equity, 401K or medical, dental or vision insurance).

ezCater does not sponsor applicants for work visas or legal permanent residence.

What You’ll Get from Us:

You’ll get a terrifically compelling experience in an innovative, high performing environment. You’ll get to work with engaged and passionate colleagues on challenging and impactful projects. You will have opportunities to grow in your career, and work in a place that values work/life harmony.

Oh, and you’ll get all this: Market competitive salary, stock options that you’ll help make worth a lot, 12 paid holidays, flexible PTO, 401K with ezCater match, health/dental/FSA, long-term disability insurance, mental health and family planning resources, remote-hybrid work from our awesome Boston office OR your home OR a mixture of both home and office, a tremendous amount of responsibility and autonomy, wicked awesome co-workers, employee meal program (and many more goodies) when you’re in our office, and knowing that you helped transform the food for work space.

ezCater is an equal opportunity employer. We embrace humans of every background, appearance, race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, and disability status. At the same time, we do not employ jerks, even brilliant ones. Following a conditional offer of employment, ezCater may require a background check.

For information on how ezCater collects and uses job applicants' personal information, please visit our Job Applicant Privacy Policy.

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