Search Engineer

Motion; Birmingham (AL); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare coverage

401(k)

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

Motion is seeking a Search Engineer (Software Engineer III) in Birmingham, AL. This role involves building intelligent search systems using Python and React, creating APIs, and leveraging ML for enhanced product discovery.

The ideal candidate will have 4+ years of experience in backend or full-stack development and a strong foundation in cloud-native application deployment. Emphasizing a culture of learning and rapid development, Motion offers excellent benefits, including healthcare, 401(k), and tuition reimbursement.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience with backend or full-stack Python/React development.
• Experience deploying cloud-native applications on platforms like GCP.
• Hands-on experience building microservices and RESTful APIs.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy production Python services end-to-end.
• Integrate ML inference pipelines and maintain Elasticsearch indexing pipelines.
• Participate in code reviews and knowledge-sharing within the team.

Skills

Python programming

React

Cloud-native experience

Microservices

Elasticsearch

Vector search

Tools

Docker

GCP

PostgreSQL

Job description

## Search EngineerApplyremote type: Hybridlocations: Birmingham, AL, USAtime type: Full timeposted on: Posted Todayjob requisition id: R26\_0000004239**Search Engineer (Software Engineer III)**Must be Authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.**ABOUT THE ROLE**We're building intelligent product search that understands intent, learns from behavior, and gets smarter over time. As a Full Stack Engineer III on the ML/AI Search team, you'll build both the frontend and backend systems that power product discovery for millions of industrial buyers—from scalable retrieval pipelines, APIs, and Frontend interfaces that make AI accessible.This isn't a research role. You'll work in the full lifecycle: prototyping ideas, shipping production-grade services on GCP, and iterating based on real user data. Python and React engineering is the foundation—if you also bring experience in search systems, vector databases, or Elasticsearch, you'll hit the ground running from day one.**WHAT YOU'LL DO****Build & Ship Search and AI-Powered Systems*** Design, develop, and deploy production Python services end-to-end—from retrieval and ranking pipelines through client-facing APIs.* Build and integrate ML inference pipelines: embedding models, transformer-based classifiers, LLM-powered query understanding, and reranking services.* Develop event-driven, real-time architectures using GCP services—Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, GKE, Cloud Functions.* Write clean, well-tested, observable Python backends; own your services through deployment, monitoring, and on-call* Drive frontend architecture decisions, establishing development standards, and creating reusable component libraries.**Contribute to Search Infrastructure*** Work alongside the Sr. Engineers, Search Architect, ML Architect to implement hybrid retrieval systems combining keyword search, dense vector similarity, and reranking.* Build and maintain Elasticsearch indexing pipelines, query services, and relevance tuning tooling.* Integrate vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS or similar) into retrieval workflows—even if this is new territory, you'll learn fast.* Instrument search pipelines with meaningful metrics: CTR, zero-result rate, latency—feeding the team's A/B experimentation loop.* Build clean, responsive, and production-ready interfaces from wireframes or Figma designs.**Own the Engineering Bar*** Participate in code reviews and knowledge-sharing—actively raising the team's collective skill level.**WHAT YOU BRING****Must-Haves*** **Experience with Python and React foundation:**4+ years of backend or full-stack engineering experience with Python/React (e.g., Next.js, Vite.js, Remix.js, Gatsby.js) focus—async patterns, type annotations, testing, and production-grade service/component design.* **Cloud-native experience:**Experience deploying and maintaining cloud-native applications (GCP, AWS, or Azure).* Hands-on experience building resilient microservices and RESTful/gRPC APIs.* 2+ years of containerization (Docker) and serverless paradigms.* Grounding in SOLID design principles and software craftsmanship.* Good communicator who thrives in cross-functional, agile teams alongside Sr. Engineers, ML engineers, architects, and product owners.* Comfort using AI tools to accelerate development throughput.* 3+ years working with relational (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle) and non-relational databases (e.g., MongoDB, DynamoDB).**Strongly Preferred — Search & ML***You don't need all of these on day one—but the more you bring, the faster you'll contribute:** Experience working in Monorepos* **Search systems:**Experience with search platforms:Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Solr, or Algolia—index management, query DSL, relevance tuning.* **Vector search:**Familiarity with vector search concepts and tooling:embeddings, approximate nearest neighbor (ANN), FAISS, Pinecone, Weaviate, or similar.* Exposure to ML/AI patterns: RAG pipelines, LLM integration, prompt engineering, or fine-tuning workflows.* Experience with AI orchestration frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, or Google ADK.**WHO YOU ARE****Fearless Builder**A working proof-of-concept beats a thousand slide decks. Speed and quality are both non-negotiable.**Relentless Learner**You pick up new technologies fast and have a genuine eagerness to master whatever comes next.**Architecture-Minded**You design scalable, fault-tolerant services as second nature and aren't afraid to challenge the status quo.**Ownership-Driven**Code isn't done until it's tested, documented, and monitored. Your name on a release means something.**Search-Curious**You may not have built a search system yet—but you're excited by the challenge and ready to go deep.**Team Multiplier**You give and welcome candid feedback and actively make the people around you better.**PHYSICAL DEMANDS:****LICENSES & CERTIFICATIONS:** None required.**SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY:** No Supervisory Responsibility**BUDGET RESPONSIBILITY:** No**COMPANY INFORMATION:** Motion Industries offers an excellent benefits package which includes options for healthcare coverage, 401(k), tuition reimbursement, vacation, sick, and holiday pay.**DISCLAIMER:** This job description illustrates the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this job classification. It is not intended to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and skills required. Management retains the right to add or modify duties at any time.