Principal Software Engineer, Search

Realtor.com; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Realtor.com is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to drive the development of their next-gen Discovery Intelligence system. This role requires extensive experience in search and recommendation systems, with a focus on leveraging AI technologies. The ideal candidate will lead architectural decisions and collaborate across teams to enhance user experience for millions of users. Join a company committed to innovation and employee wellbeing, offering competitive benefits and a vibrant work culture.

Benefits

Inclusive and Competitive medical, Rx, dental, and vision coverage

Flexible Time Off

Tuition Reimbursement program

Immediate eligibility into Company 401(k) plan with 3.5% company match

Free snacks and refreshments in each office location

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in full-stack software architecture, design, and development.
• Experience with LLM, RAG, and other Gen-AI is a huge plus.
• Ability to decompose complex business problems and communicate solutions succinctly.

Responsibilities

• Own system-level architecture and software design for features and services.
• Develop an AI-first ecosystem for the organization.
• Collaborate with technical leads to define a technical roadmap.

Skills

Search

Recommendation

Information Retrieval

Cloud-based architectures

Data-driven approach

Strong communication skills

Interpersonal skills

Education

Bachelor or Master degree in Computer Science / Engineering

Job description

Recognized as the No. 1 site trusted by real estate professionals, Realtor.com has been at the forefront of online real estate for over 25 years, connecting buyers, sellers, and renters with trusted insights and expert guidance to find their perfect home. Through its robust suite of tools, Realtor.com not only makes a significant impact on the real estate industry at large, but for consumers, navigating the biggest purchase they will make in their life, by providing a user experience that is easy to use, easy to understand, and most of all, easy to make decisions.

Join us on our mission to empower more people to find their way home by breaking barriers to entry, making the right connections, and building confidence through expert guidance.

At Realtor.com, we’re on a mission to revolutionize the way people find and secure their dream homes. Every day, we process terabytes of data to power intelligent search and personalized recommendations that serve millions of home buyers, renters, and real estate professionals. Our core search engine sits at the heart of this experience—helping users discover the right home faster, with greater confidence.

We have an exciting and unique opportunity for a skilled, highly motivated, and self-driven Principal Software Engineer (PSE) to join our Search organization. The charter for this team is crucial to our overall business strategy, in building the platforms to identify and consolidate our knowledge of the consumer, unlocking insights that will create a rich and personalized experience.

The PSE is a key technical leader and contributor through all stages of the software development lifecycle. You will be able to make an impact, leveraging your leadership and collaboration abilities to execute various organizational initiatives, designing and delivering industry-leading solutions.

Three Reasons Why to Apply :

• Lead and define our next-gen Discovery Intelligence system with the cutting-edge AI technologies
• Unlock the new home discovery experience for millions of users
• Gain hands-on experience with large-scale Search, Recommendation, and Personalization systems

What You'll Do :

• Own system-level architecture and software design for features and services spanning multiple engineering teams. Help define system components, entities, and service interfaces, with consideration for scalability, complexity, availability, security, performance, cost, and other criteria.
• Develop an AI first ecosystem for the organization.
• Help make the right technology choices for implementing solutions. Conduct alternative analysis for technology selection or build vs buy decisions and present to stakeholders.
• Build high-quality and highly scalable services leveraging advanced machine learning and predictive analytic models.
• Design and operationalize data pipelines using advanced data architectures deployed on Amazon Web Services.
• Work with product managers and tech leaders early on to shape product definition so that it can be built in a flexible, extensible, and robust way. Work collaboratively across engineering teams to plan and execute at high velocity.
• Define and drive adoption of design patterns, coding and quality standards, and software development processes.
• Help improve software and data quality by coming up with better measuring and testing methods.
• Collaborate with technical leads and architects to define a technical roadmap and long-term architecture vision. Drive and support innovation by acting as a sounding board for ideas and helping bring them to life. Actively engage in tracking and reducing technical debt.
• Share ideas, insights, and technology trends with the broader technical audience within the company. Provide coaching and mentoring to technical staff.
• Play a key role in hiring, retention, and growth of talent : attract, evaluate, coach, and mentor senior engineers.

How We Work :

We balance creativity and innovation on a foundation of in-person collaboration. For most roles, our employees work three or more days in our offices, where they have the opportunity to collaborate in-person, adding richness to our culture and knitting us closer together.

What You'll Bring :

• Extensive experience in Search, Recommendation, Information Retrieval, or related fields.
• 15+ years (preferred) of experience in full-stack software architecture, design, and development.
• Experience with LLM, RAG, and other Gen-AI experience a huge plus.
• Experience with designing and developing complex, robust, and highly scalable production services and applications using modern frameworks, tools, and systems.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, connecting directly and effectively with cross-functional stakeholders at various levels.
• Ability to decompose complex business problems and communicate solutions succinctly
• Experience with cloud-based architectures, development, and deployment
• A data-driven approach with strong results and outcome-oriented focus, understanding the value derived from rapidly shipping code and learning / iterating on the results
• Strong empathy for our customers and a passion for exceeding their expectations, always!
• A passion for learning, continuous improvement, sharing, and working in a team environment
• Bachelor or Master degree in Computer Science / Engineering or related field, or equivalent professional experience

How we Reward you :

Realtor.com is committed to investing in the health and wellbeing of our employees and their families. Our benefits programs include, but are not limited to :

• Inclusive and Competitive medical, Rx, dental, and vision coverage
• Family forming benefits
• 13 Paid Holidays
• Flexible Time Off
• 8 hours of paid Volunteer Time off
• Immediate eligibility into Company 401(k) plan with 3.5% company match
• Tuition Reimbursement program for degreed and non-degreed programs
• 1 : 1 personalized Financial Planning Sessions
• Student Debt Retirement Savings Match program
• Free snacks and refreshments in each office location

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Principal Software Engineer • Austin, Texas Metropolitan Area, United States