Senior Java Search Engineer: Vector & AI-Powered Backend

Lineate; Georgia; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Lineate is seeking a Senior Java Search Engineer to optimize full-text and vector search within backend systems. You will integrate AI/ML components into production services and support AI-driven features.

Requirements include 5+ years in production Java, Spring Boot expertise, and hands-on work with vector search technologies such as Vespa, plus Redis, MySQL, and Kafka. Collaboration across product and data teams is essential.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience with Java in production environments.
• Strong expertise in Java 25+, Spring Framework / Spring Boot, and modern backend development practices.
• Experience building and optimizing high-performance search systems and search-related services.
• Hands-on experience with vector search technologies (Vespa or similar).
• Solid experience with Redis, MySQL, and Apache Kafka.
• Experience with reactive programming (RxJava).
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, scalability, performance tuning, and reliability.
• Experience designing and implementing APIs and microservices.
• Knowledge of software architecture, testing, and engineering best practices.

Responsibilities

• Developing and optimizing large-scale search functionality with emphasis on full-text and vector search performance.
• Building backend services using Java, Spring, and reactive technologies.
• Designing and improving search relevance, ranking, indexing, and retrieval mechanisms.
• Integrating AI/ML components into production systems and supporting AI-driven product features.
• Building and maintaining reliable data pipelines and event-driven services using Kafka.
• Collaborating with product, data, and engineering teams to deliver scalable search and discovery solutions.

Skills

Java

Spring Framework

Vector search

Redis

MySQL

Apache Kafka

RxJava

Distributed systems

APIs & microservices

Testing & best practices

Tools

Vespa

OpenSearch/Elasticsearch

Weaviate

Job description

Lineate is seeking a Senior Java Search Engineer to optimize full-text and vector search within backend systems. You will integrate AI/ML components into production services and support AI-driven features.

Requirements include 5+ years in production Java, Spring Boot expertise, and hands-on work with vector search technologies such as Vespa, plus Redis, MySQL, and Kafka. Collaboration across product and data teams is essential.