Senior Software Engineer - Search Relevance & Vector AI

Elasticsearch B.V.; Town of Norway (WI); Hybrid; USD 85,000 - 134,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Flexible locations and schedules

Vacation days

Donation matching

Volunteer hours

Parental leave

Job summary

Elastic is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for the Elasticsearch - Search Relevance team. You will help shape the direction of vector search capabilities, implement new features, and resolve complex bugs in a fast-paced, globally distributed environment.

You will collaborate across continents, contribute to high-performance code, and deliver scalable search experiences. Proficiency in Java and hands-on experience with search infrastructure are essential for success.

Qualifications

• Implemented novel techniques in vector similarity for large-scale search.
• Experience with search or vector databases at scale using HNSW, IVF or similar algorithms.

Responsibilities

• Lead initiatives within Elasticsearch to produce industry-leading search with speed and relevance.
• Contribute to Elasticsearch full-time, build new search features and fix bugs, sometimes inventing algorithms.
• Work with a globally distributed team focused on vector search capabilities.
• Be an expert on Elasticsearch search relevance and drive improvements.
• Collaborate with community members worldwide on issues and PRs, triaging or handling them.
• Write idiomatic modern Java — Elasticsearch is 99.8% Java!

Skills

Vector similarity

Search databases

Java

Autonomy

Collaboration

Data storage tech

AI acceleration

Distributed teamwork

Tools

HNSW

IVF

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

Cassandra

Job description

Elastic is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for the Elasticsearch - Search Relevance team. You will help shape the direction of vector search capabilities, implement new features, and resolve complex bugs in a fast-paced, globally distributed environment.

You will collaborate across continents, contribute to high-performance code, and deliver scalable search experiences. Proficiency in Java and hands-on experience with search infrastructure are essential for success.