Senior Software Engineer, Search

Vannevar; United States; Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 215,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Remote friendly with WeWork access

Unlimited PTO

401(k) match

Fully paid parental leave

Job summary

Vannevar is a defense technology company building AI to deter adversaries. The Senior Software Engineer role focuses on search and information retrieval, partnering with ML and product teams to advance a state‑of‑the‑art search system that surfaces mission‑critical information for decision makers.

You will design and evolve the technical strategy for search, push latency and relevance, and collaborate with engineers, designers, and strategists to translate user needs into data‑driven innovations.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend software development experience.
• 3+ years in search or information retrieval.
• Experience architecting scalable systems.
• Hands-on with Elasticsearch/OpenSearch and NLP/ML concepts.
• U.S. Person status required.

Responsibilities

• Define technical search strategy across full-text, vectors, LLMs, NLP, and ranking.
• Improve search latency and relevance.
• Collaborate with product, design, and mission teams to translate needs into search innovations.
• Research new technologies to improve index quality and retrieval performance.

Skills

Backend development

Search systems

Information retrieval

NLP

Machine learning

Elasticsearch/OpenSearch

Leadership & communication

Tools

Elasticsearch/OpenSearch

Job description

Vannevar is a defense technology company building AI to deter our adversaries. In the 21st century, conflict moves at algorithmic speed and foresight equals firepower. Our agentic AI is purpose‑built to compete with China—from cross‑Strait conflict to gray zone coercion. Trained on the most mission‑relevant datasets in defense, our technology models adversary behavior, simulates campaigns, and recommends the best course of action to decision makers. Our AI systems are some of the most trusted in the industry and actively used on the front lines of the Indo‑Pacific to keep the peace and save lives.

Exceptional technology starts with exceptional people. Vannevar is a small agile team combining world‑class engineers with veteran strategists who bring deep expertise in defense and tradecraft. We’re building a company defined by mission impact, user empathy, and disciplined growth. In just three years, we grew from $3M to $80M in ARR, achieved early profitability, and reached unicorn status—proving that disruption doesn’t require an ego, and staying power doesn’t mean standing still.

About The Role

Search is at the heart of Vannevar’s flagship platform and agentic workflows. We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer, with substantial knowledge and passion for search and information retrieval, to drive innovation in this space. In this role, you will work directly with our ML and product teams to advance a state‑of‑the‑art search system that fundamentally drives our users’ ability to surface mission critical information.

What you’ll do

• Design and adapt the technical strategy for search within Vannevar’s products, including how we leverage full‑text search, vector databases, LLMs, NLP, and relevance algorithms
• Improve both search latency and relevance
• Collaborate with product engineers, designers, and mission strategists to translate user needs into data‑informed search innovations
• Research and apply emerging technologies, trends and best practices in the search/information retrieval domain to improve index quality, freshness, and retrieval performance

What we’re looking for

• You have 7+ years of experience in backend software development, with 3+ years in search, information retrieval, or related fields
• You have a passion for architecting, developing and deploying reliable, scalable, and performant systems
• You have expertise in information retrieval, NLP, and machine learning. You have a deep understanding of concepts like indexing, ranking, query parsing, tokenization, and vector search.
• You have hands‑on experience with at least one major search engine (e.g., Elasticsearch, OpenSearch), and familiarity with search evaluation frameworks (e.g., precision, recall, NDCG).
• You have excellent analytical, problem‑solving, leadership, and communication skills.
• U.S. Person status is required as this position will require the ability to access U.S. only data systems.

Competitive Salary

The salary range for this position is $150,000 - $215,000 + equity. Within the range, individual pay is determined by experience, relevant education, and/or training.

Comprehensive Benefits

We’re proud to offer competitive benefits that support our employees. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Remote friendly with WeWork access
• Unlimited PTO, shared downtime during the federal holiday calendar, and company‑wide off time at the end of each year
• 401(k) match
• Lifestyle & wellbeing stipends
• Salary top‑up during military reserve duty
• Fully paid parental leave
• Child and pet care reimbursement during travel

Vannevar is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.

We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply, even if you don't feel like you're a perfect fit. If you're passionate about contributing to our mission, we'd love to hear from you!