# Software Engineer - Search Infrastructure

**Company:** [xAI](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/xai)
**Location:** Palo Alto, CA
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $150k – $400k/yr
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** Rust, C++, jvm, Elasticsearch, lucene, Distributed Systems, operating systems, filesystems, Networking, database storage engines, real-time indexing, Incident Response
**Posted:** 2026-08-06

> Build and operate large-scale search infrastructure covering real-time indexing, query serving, data pipelines, reliability, and performance. The role requires 5+ years of infrastructure or distributed-systems experience and proficiency in Rust, C++, or JVM-based languages, plus hands-on search technology experience.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Design and build large-scale search infrastructure, including real-time indexing, serving, and data pipelines, handling massive write and query loads with strict latency and reliability requirements.
- Develop deep expertise in search internals, including indexing, query execution, and relevance, and help shape the technical direction of core search infrastructure.
- Operate production services end to end, including monitoring, debugging, incident response, and performance optimization.
- Lead and drive incident response and recovery with peers.
- Review and contribute to incident postmortems while maintaining a high quality bar.

## Requirements
- **5+ years** developing large-scale infrastructure or distributed systems, or experience with storage or hardware architecture.
- Proficiency in high-performance **Rust**, **C++**, or JVM-based languages.
- Hands-on experience with search and indexing technologies such as **Elasticsearch**, **Lucene**, or similar, with an understanding of how they work and why.
- Experience with operating system internals, filesystems, networking, or database storage engines.
- Strong focus on performance, reliability, scalability, and quality.
- Ability to take full ownership of problems and learn what is needed to solve them.
- Comfort working quickly in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities and tight deadlines.

## Nice-to-Haves
- Contributions to open-source search or infrastructure projects.

## Compensation and Benefits
- **Base salary:** $150,000–$400,000 USD.
- Equity and comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage.
- 401(k) retirement plan.
- Short- and long-term disability insurance.
- Life insurance, discounts, and other perks.

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