# Senior Software Engineer, Search

**Company:** [Vannevar](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/vannevar)
**Location:** Remote
**Role:** Fullstack Engineering
**Salary:** $150k – $215k/yr
**Experience:** 7+ years
**Skills:** Elasticsearch, Opensearch, NLP, LLMs, Vector Databases, Information Retrieval, Machine Learning, Indexing, Ranking, Vector Search
**Posted:** 2026-01-13

> Senior Software Engineer designs and optimizes search systems using full-text search, vector databases, LLMs, and NLP to enhance mission-critical information retrieval. Requires 7+ years backend experience with 3+ in search/IR, expertise in Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, and strong analytical skills.

## Job Description

## 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

- **7+ years** of experience in backend software development, with **3+ years** in search, information retrieval, or related fields
- Passion for architecting, developing and deploying reliable, scalable, and performant systems
- Expertise in information retrieval, **NLP**, and machine learning. Deep understanding of concepts like indexing, ranking, query parsing, tokenization, and vector search
- Hands-on experience with at least one major search engine (**Elasticsearch**, **OpenSearch**), and familiarity with search evaluation frameworks (**precision**, **recall**, **NDCG**)
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, leadership, and communication skills

## What we offer

**Salary range: $150,000 - $215,000 + equity.** Individual pay determined by experience, relevant education, and/or training.

Comprehensive benefits including health, dental, and vision insurance, **remote friendly** with WeWork access, unlimited PTO, 401(k) match, and more.

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