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Senior Software Engineer - Vector Search - Elasticsearch

Elastic· Platform - Elasticsearch
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Hybrid (Switzerland)full-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Senior Software Engineer in the Elasticsearch - Search Relevance team focusing on vector search capabilities, contributing to design, implementation, and enhancements of search features and algorithms, with emphasis on performance and relevance.

Responsibilities

  • Lead initiatives within Elasticsearch to produce an industry-leading search engine offering, supplying unparalleled speed and relevance in search.
  • Contribute to Elasticsearch full time, building new search features and fixing intriguing bugs, including potential invention of new algorithms or data structures and close interaction with OS/hardware aspects.
  • Work with a globally distributed team focused on vector search capabilities of Elasticsearch.
  • Be an expert on Elasticsearch search relevance, driving improvements based on questions and insights.
  • Collaborate with the community on issues and pull requests, triaging or handling them as needed.
  • Write idiomatic modern Java — Elasticsearch is 99.8% Java!

Qualifications

  • Implemented novel techniques in vector similarity on a search platform with a large user base or contributed to academic research in vector similarity information retrieval.
  • Professional experience with search or vector databases, with usage of HNSW, IVF, or other relevant algorithms and libraries at scale.
  • Solid skills in core Java and familiarity with standard library data structures and concurrency constructs, including lambdas.
  • Autonomy to own projects from design to delivery, including cross-team collaboration to develop components.
  • Experience collaborating asynchronously and across distributed teams; strong communication skills.
  • Experience with multiple data storage technologies (e.g., Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra) and understanding of their workings.
  • Proven track record of using AI to accelerate development, debugging, and optimization, while owning outcomes.
  • Ability to adapt across functions and projects based on business priorities.

Skills

Required:Vector similarity techniquesJava programmingSearch systems / vector databases

Benefits

  • Competitive pay
  • Health coverage for you and your family in many locations
  • Flexible locations and schedules for many roles
  • Generous vacation days
  • Matching donations up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent)
  • Up to 40 hours/year for volunteer projects
  • Minimum of 16 weeks parental leave
Last updated Sep 3, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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