Lead Software Engineer, Search (Semantic Platform)

Commerce; Austin (TX); Remote; USD 182,000 - 259,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first

Workspace options

Job summary

Commerce is seeking a Lead Software Engineer, Search to architect and scale semantic search across our OpenSearch-based platform. You will blend traditional keyword matching with vector embeddings, driving a hybrid search capability that supports high-throughput data discovery across our ecosystem.

The role demands hands-on leadership, deep OpenSearch experience, and a passion for building scalable search infrastructure with low latency.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software development with leadership experience.
• Hands-on OpenSearch/Elasticsearch expertise at scale.
• Experience implementing semantic and hybrid search with vector embeddings.
• Strong backend skills in Go, Java, or Scala; PHP experience helpful.
• Proficiency with MySQL, and distributed messaging (Kafka/RabbitMQ).
• Familiarity with OpenSearch neural search, k-NN, and LTR.

Responsibilities

• Architect semantic search capabilities using OpenSearch (BM25 + vector).
• Benchmark and tune search relevance and ranking models.
• Own data ingestion and indexing pipelines (MySQL, Kafka/RabbitMQ).
• Provide technical leadership and mentor engineers.
• Ensure ultra-low latency and high availability under heavy traffic.

Skills

OpenSearch

Elasticsearch

Semantic search

Hybrid search

Go/Java/Scala

MySQL

Kafka/RabbitMQ

Docker

Kubernetes

Vector embeddings

NDCG/MRR

Learning to Rank

Tools

OpenSearch

MySQL

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Welcome to the Agentic Commerce Era At Commerce, our mission is to empower businesses to innovate, grow, and thrive with our open, AI-driven commerce ecosystem. As the parent company of BigCommerce, Feedonomics, and Makeswift, we connect the tools and systems that power growth, enabling businesses to unlock the full potential of their data, deliver seamless and personalized experiences across every channel, and adapt swiftly to an ever-changing market. We believe in harnessing AI responsibly to unlock new possibilities, and we’re looking for individuals who use it intentionally to solve problems, accelerate outcomes, and expand what’s possible in their role. Our purpose is to help businesses confidently solve complex commerce challenges so they can build smarter, adapt faster, and grow on their own terms. If you want to be part of a team of bold builders, sharp thinkers, and technical trailblazers who shape the future of commerce, this is the place for you.

We are looking for a Lead Software Engineer, Search to pioneer the next evolution of our search infrastructure. In this role, you won't just be maintaining query pipelines; you will be responsible for building, iterating, and scaling semantic search via hybrid search on OpenSearch as a core, foundational platform capability. As the technical lead for this initiative, you will architect the systems that blend traditional keyword matching with deep semantic understanding. You will own the strategy for integrating vector embeddings, neural search, and dense/sparse hybrid retrieval, directly impacting how users discover data across our entire ecosystem. If you are a hands-on technical leader who loves OpenSearch, relevancy tuning, and building high-throughput, foundational capabilities, we want you.

What You’ll Do

• Architect the Future of Search: Lead the design and implementation of semantic search capabilities, utilizing OpenSearch to build a robust, hybrid search (BM25 + vector) capability from the ground up
• Iterate & Optimize: Continuously evaluate, benchmark, and fine-tune search relevance, ranking models, and k-NN/neural search configurations within OpenSearch
• Own the Indexing Pipeline: Maintain, scale, and evolve our core data ingestion and indexing pipelines (built on MySQL, Kafka/RabbitMQ, and backend microservices) to seamlessly support dense vector ingestion and de-duplicated, resilient synchronization
• Technical Leadership: Guide the technical roadmap for the Search team, establish engineering best practices, and mentor senior and mid-level engineers through complex architectural decisions
• Production Excellence: Ensure the search platform meets ultra-low latency requirements and high-availability SLAs under massive, concurrent traffic loads while participating in the team's on-call rotation

Who Are You

• Experience: 7+ years of professional software development experience, with a proven track record in a technical leadership or staff-level capacity
• OpenSearch/Elasticsearch Expertise: Deep hands-on experience building, scaling, and fine-tuning OpenSearch (or Elasticsearch) clusters at scale
• Semantic & Hybrid Search: Proven experience implementing semantic search, working with text embeddings, vector databases, and configuring hybrid search scoring models
• Strong Backend Fundamentals: High proficiency in a strongly typed language like GoLang, Scala, or Java, alongside experience with languages like PHP
• Data Pipelines: Strong experience with relational databases (MySQL), schema design, and distributed messaging tools (Kafka or RabbitMQ) for heavy data mutation and indexing
• Familiarity with the OpenSearch Neural Search plugin, k-NN search, or Learning to Rank (LTR)
• Experience migrating large-scale search infrastructure from traditional Elasticsearch configurations to advanced OpenSearch semantic implementations
• Experience setting up automated search quality measurement frameworks (e.g., NDCG, MRR)
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) in a cloud environment

(Pay Transparency Range: $182,000.00 - $259,000.00)

Work Where You Thrive

Commerce is a remote-first company. For team members in Austin, Atlanta, and London, we offer optional collaborative workspaces for team gatherings, workshops, and in-person connection. Use them whenever they're helpful, balancing focused individual work with meaningful in-person collaboration.

Compensation Transparency

The national base salary range for this role is posted above in this job post.

Final compensation will be determined based on factors such as relevant experience, skills, qualifications and geographic location. We also consider internal equity to help ensure fair and consistent pay practices across our teams.

Where applicable, this role may also be eligible for variable compensation (such as bonus or commission), equity, and benefits in accordance with local policies. Details will be shared during the hiring process. We are committed to equitable and transparent pay practices that align to market data, internal equity, and individual contribution.

Inclusion and Belonging

At Commerce, we believe that celebrating the unique histories, perspectives and abilities of every employee makes a difference for our company, our customers and our community. We are an equal opportunity employer and the inclusive atmosphere we build together will make room for every person to contribute, grow and thrive.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you require accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.

Learn more about the Commerce team, culture and benefits at https://www.commerce.com/careers/

Identity Verification

To protect our candidates and company from fraudulent activity, our interview process includes a government ID and biometric verification via Persona, our trusted identity verification provider. All information is collected and processed securely in accordance with applicable privacy laws.