Sr. Apache Solr Search Engineer- Richmond, VA (Onsite)

About the role

Apache Solr Search Engineer – Richmond, VA (Onsite) – 12‑month contract. Requires 5+ years overall experience with 3+ years hands‑on Apache Solr implementation and optimization. Mandatory keywords for sourcing: Apache Solr, SolrCloud, Lucene, Search Optimization, Indexing, Faceting, Relevancy Tuning, Search APIs, Query Performance, Schema Design, Replication, Sharding, Search Architecture.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable search solutions using Apache Solr.
• Configure and manage Solr collections, cores, schemas, and indexing pipelines.
• Develop and optimize complex search queries, filters, facets, boosting, and relevancy tuning.
• Implement full‑text search, autocomplete, spell check, synonym management, and ranking algorithms.
• Analyze and improve search performance, indexing efficiency, and query response times.
• Integrate Solr with Java‑based and web applications through REST APIs.
• Troubleshoot search issues, index corruption, replication, and cluster‑related problems.
• Support SolrCloud deployments, sharding, replication, and high‑availability configurations.
• Work closely with business analysts and application teams to define search requirements and relevancy models.
• Provide recommendations on search architecture, scalability, and best practices.

Skills

Required Skills

• Strong hands‑on experience with Apache Solr / SolrCloud.
• Expertise in search engine concepts including indexing, tokenization, stemming, analyzers, filters, and scoring.
• Experience in configuring schemas, managed schemas, dynamic fields, and custom analyzers.
• Knowledge of search relevancy tuning, boosting, faceting, highlighting, and query parsers.
• Experience with Solr administration, performance tuning, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
• Strong understanding of REST APIs and integration patterns.
• Experience with Java/J2EE‑based applications.
• Familiarity with Linux environments and scripting.
• Experience with version control tools such as Git.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with Elasticsearch and comparative search architectures.
• Experience working with Guidewire applications and implementing/searching solutions using Apache Solr within Guidewire environments.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP).
• Experience in Guidewire, Insurance, Financial Services, or large‑scale enterprise applications.
• Exposure to CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
• Understanding of security, access control, and search governance.

Nice to Have

• SolrCloud migration experience.
• Search analytics and relevance engineering expertise.
• Experience handling large‑scale datasets (millions of documents).