Senior Software Engineer, Vector Index Research

Responsibilities

• Research, evaluate, and implement new vector indexing and retrieval algorithms for Milvus, Zilliz Cloud, and Vector Lakebase
• Read papers and track emerging work in vector search, ANN algorithms, index structures, quantization, compression, reranking, GPU acceleration, and AI retrieval systems
• Build high-performance vector indexing components, including index building, query paths, vector preprocessing, quantization, compression, memory layout, and CPU/GPU acceleration
• Optimize vector retrieval performance across latency, throughput, recall, memory usage, index build time, and cost efficiency
• Design benchmarks and evaluation frameworks to compare algorithms and implementations under real data scale, real query patterns, and real AI workloads
• Debug and solve complex performance issues across algorithm implementation, CPU/GPU execution, SIMD/vectorization, memory access, concurrency, and I/O
• Turn research prototypes into maintainable, testable, and evolvable production-grade indexing capabilities
• Use AI tools across the research and engineering workflow, including paper analysis, prototype generation, code implementation, testing, benchmarking, documentation, and performance analysis

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience in vector search, ANN algorithms, search systems, high-performance computing, or performance-critical systems
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Strong C++ or Rust programming ability and solid engineering fundamentals
• Strong interest in research-driven engineering: reading papers, evaluating tradeoffs, building prototypes, and turning ideas into production systems

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with vector similarity search, ANN algorithms, index structures, quantization, compression, reranking, or high-performance retrieval systems
• Experience with performance optimization and systematic debugging, especially around CPU/GPU execution, SIMD, memory layout, concurrency, I/O, or large-scale data processing
• Interest in using AI tools to improve research, coding, testing, benchmarking, documentation, and performance analysis

Benefits

• Competitive compensation (cash + equity)
• Regular bonus and equity refresh opportunities
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid time off, including vacation, sick leave, and global reset/wellbeing days
• Generous 401(k) and regional retirement plans