Software Engineer with Search Engine Expertise

IT Software Engineer (Search Engine Expertise)Chicago IL, Dallas TX, Peoria IL, Broomfield CT (Remote)ContractOverview of the Role

This position is within the E-Commerce and Platform Applications Group. The team supports and enhances search functionality across Client digital platforms, including:

The search functionality is currently built using Lucidworks (Lucene-based search technology). The team maintains, improves, and potentially migrates this search platform.

The organization is looking to hire two Lead Software Engineers who will work on search engine optimization, issue resolution, and future platform enhancements.

Key Responsibilities

Selected candidates will be responsible for:

• Troubleshooting and resolving issues within the search engine platform.
• Improving search performance and quality.
• Enhancing search query logic and indexing pipelines.
• Supporting ongoing development and optimization of search functionality.
• Assisting with search engine migration planning and prototyping new technologies.
• Working within production environments to maintain and improve search services.

The role is highly hands-on and requires active coding and technical troubleshooting.

Preferred Technical Skills1. Search Engine Expertise

Candidates must have strong experience with enterprise search technologies such as:

• Apache Lucene
• Solr
• OpenSearch
• Lucidworks
• Coveo

Important Note:

Experience using search engines for log analytics is not preferred. The focus should be on:

• E-commerce search
• Content search
• Product catalog search
• Website or document search indexing2. Search Quality & Data Science

Candidates should understand search relevance and search quality measurement, including:

• How search ranking works
• Improving result accuracy
• Understanding user search behavior
• Applying machine learning concepts to search relevance

Example provided:

Understanding how search results appear on platforms like Amazon and how relevance is evaluated.

3. Cloud & Programming Skills

Required technical stack includes:

Cloud Platforms

• AWS (strongly preferred)

Programming Languages

• Python
• Java
• Scala (less emphasis)

Search Query Expertise

• Strong knowledge of Apache Lucene query syntax4. Generative AI Knowledge

Experience integrating Generative AI with search systems is highly desirable. This is an emerging area the team is exploring to improve search functionality.

5. DevOps & Production Practices

Candidates should have experience with:

• CI/CD pipelines
• Production deployments
• Monitoring and maintaining large-scale applications
• DevOps best practices