Principal Software Engineer I (Elasticsearch, Search Relevance)

TL;DR

Principal Software Engineer I (hirify.globalsearch, Search Relevance): Leading initiatives to produce an industry-leading search engine offering, supplying unparalleled speed and relevance in search with an accent on enhancing vector and keyword search functionality. Focus on designing and implementing new search features, inventing new algorithms, and optimizing performance at the operating system and hardware levels.

Location: Our company is distributed by intention. We hire the best engineers we can find wherever they are, whoever they are. Cannot hire from Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, the Crimea Region of Ukraine, the Donetsk People’s Republic, and the Luhansk People’s Republic due to export controls.

Company

hirify.global, the Search AI Company, provides a complete cloud-based platform for search, security, and observability, trusted by over 50% of the Fortune 500.

What you will do

• Lead initiatives to produce an industry-leading search engine within hirify.globalsearch, focusing on speed and relevance.
• Contribute to hirify.globalsearch full time, building new search features, fixing bugs, and improving code clarity.
• Become an expert in hirify.globalsearch search relevance, identifying and driving improvements based on your insights.
• Work with a globally distributed team and community members on issues and pull requests.
• Write idiomatic modern Java, as hirify.globalsearch is predominantly Java-based.

Requirements

• Professional experience with search and vector databases, using HNSW, IVF, or similar algorithms on search platforms at scale.
• Strong skills in core Java, including standard library data structures, concurrency constructs, and lambdas.
• High level of autonomy, capable of guiding projects from beginning to end, including technical design and collaboration.
• Comfortable developing collaboratively, providing and receiving feedback on code and approaches, especially in asynchronous remote environments.
• Experience with various data storage technologies like hirify.globalsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Cassandra.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with a respectful and empathetic approach to interactions.

Nice to have

• Experience building things with hirify.globalsearch.
• Familiarity with open-source projects and continuous integration workflows.
• Experience designing, leading, and owning cross-functional initiatives.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive pay based on work output.
• Health coverage for you and your family in many locations.
• Ability to craft your calendar with flexible locations and schedules for many roles.
• Generous number of vacation days each year.
• Company matches financial donations and service up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent).
• Up to 40 hours each year to use toward volunteer projects.
• Minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave.