Senior Search Engineer - Search and Browse Core (All genders)

About the role

This role is within the Search Retrieval Team, which is responsible for Growth Content Creator's core search engine. This engine connects over 62 million customers across 29 markets to products and content. The team manages a platform that includes millions of searchable content items, multiple clusters, and hundreds of distributed indices, utilizing embeddings and LLMs for semantic and query understanding.

As a Senior Search Engineer, you will be central to evolving this platform. Your work will involve leading the design and implementation of an AI-driven search engine, specifically integrating Neural Search with the existing Elasticsearch platform. You will also focus on modernizing and scaling real-time data ingestion systems to handle high volumes of updates.

A key aspect of this position is driving platform innovation and operational excellence. This includes developing core capabilities that allow other teams to create personalized discovery experiences. You will also lead infrastructure projects, such as consolidating search indices and ensuring system readiness for high-traffic events, while focusing on cost efficiency.

The salary for this role ranges from $90,000 to $135,000 annually.

Skills that matter here

• Elasticsearch: This role involves integrating Neural Search on top of the existing Elasticsearch platform and requires deep expertise in distributed search systems.
• Kafka: You will use Kafka to modernize and scale real-time data ingestion systems, handling millions of updates.
• Flink: This position requires using Flink to build high-throughput data ingestion pipelines.
• Java: Proficiency in Java is required, as it is one of the JVM languages used for backend development.
• Kotlin: Kotlin is a preferred JVM language for backend development, alongside Java and Scala.
• Scala: Scala is one of the JVM languages essential for developing the backend systems in this role.

Who this role suits

• A person with extensive experience building large-scale search engines, especially in an e-commerce context.
• Someone who excels at designing and implementing high-throughput data ingestion pipelines.
• An engineer with a strong foundation in distributed systems architecture, concurrency, and performance optimization.
• A collaborative individual who can effectively translate complex product requirements into reliable platform capabilities.

From the employer

As a Senior Search Engineer, you will be at the heart of our mission, tackling complex distributed systems problems at hyperscale. You will:

• Architect the Future of Search: Lead the design and implementation of our next-generation, AI-driven search engine, integrating Neural Search on top of our Elasticsearch platform.
• Build for Hyperscale: Modernize and scale our real-time data ingestion systems using technologies like Kafka and Flink to handle millions of updates.
• Drive Platform Innovation: Develop core platform capabilities that enable teams across Zalando to build rich, personalized discovery experiences for our customers.
• Drive Operational Excellence and Cost Efficiency: Lead platform-wide infrastructure projects, such as consolidating multi-lingual search indices, mitigating critical risks by migrating core services, and supporting system readiness for high-traffic events like Cyber Week.

WE’D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF:

• Deep Search Expertise: Extensive experience building large-scale, preferably e-commerce, search engines. While our stack is built on Elasticsearch, we highly value equivalent expertise in Lucene, OpenSearch, Solr, or other distributed search systems.
• Real-Time Data Pipeline Experience: Proven ability to design and build high-throughput data ingestion pipelines using Kafka and/or Flink or equivalent stream-processing frameworks.
• Strong Backend Foundation: High proficiency in a JVM language (Java, Kotlin, or Scala) and a deep understanding of distributed systems architecture, concurrency, and performance optimization.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Excellent communication skills. You thrive when working closely with fellow engineers, applied scientists, and product partners, and you possess a knack for translating complex product requirements into reusable, reliable platform capabilities.

OUR OFFER:

Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer.

• Employee shares program
• 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Zalando Lounge, discounts from external partners
• 2 paid volunteering days a year
• 27 days of vacation a year (for Zalando SE)
• Relocation assistance available (subject to prior agreement)
• Family services, including counseling and support
• Health and wellbeing options (including Gympass)
• Mental health support and coaching available