Staff Software Engineer, Search Platform (Remote)
Murphy's Deli 811 Main · Boston, MA · 3 wk ago
Engineering$184k–$232k/yrFull-time
About the role
The Staff Software Engineer on the Search team will be responsible for setting technical direction, leading the design and implementation of the indexing pipeline and query-serving stack, and shaping ranking and relevance strategy for the Search Platform. This role involves building parts of the platform, guiding the team's execution, and partnering with Platform Engineering and downstream consumers at the integration boundaries.
Responsibilities
- Own the Search Engine architecture: technology direction (Vespa-based), document schema, query serving, and operational model
- Own and build the Indexing Pipeline: Temporal-orchestrated workflows that ingest, validate, transform, and write data into the search engine and availability store
- Own Availability: zone-based delivery filtering, schedule matching, and the data model that powers it- extracted from the legacy monolith and re-implemented.
- Own the Two-Stage Filtering Architecture: zone-based availability filtering followed by Vespa filtering and ranking
- Drive search relevance and ranking strategy across ordering contexts and customer types, in collaboration with product and data
- Define clear, well-versioned APIs and contracts for how search and availability are consumed across all channels
- Manage migration sequencing and risk across the phased rollout (Typeahead, Availability, Core Search)
- Build a measurement and experimentation foundation supporting full-funnel evaluation, from CTR through order fulfillment
- Lead through collaborative design: white-boarding, technical discussions, and aligning teams around clear architectural decisions
- Partner with Platform Engineering on shared service patterns, Temporal, observability, secrets, and CI/CD
- Partner with product, data, and downstream consumers on relevance, ranking signals, and API contracts
- Act as a technical multiplier through design reviews, code reviews, architectural guidance, and mentorship
Requirements
- 8+ years of professional software engineering experience
- Deep experience designing, building, and tuning search engines (Elasticsearch, Solr, OpenSearch, Vespa, or equivalent); experience leading a major search re-architecture or building from scratch is strongly preferred; Vespa experience is a significant plus
- Strong proficiency in Go, or a willingness to adopt it as a primary language
- Experience with real-time data pipelines (Kafka, event streaming) for search indexing
- Strong instincts for relevance and ranking, with the ability to translate product goals into ranking signals and evaluate them with data
- Excellent written and verbal communication around collaborative system design and technical decision-making
- A pragmatic, collaborative mindset with strong ownership and systems thinking
- Experience with workflow orchestration (Temporal, Airflow, or equivalent) is a plus
- Familiarity with geospatial systems and spatial filtering is a plus
Qualifications
- Market competitive salary
- Stock options that you’ll help make worth a lot
- 12 paid holidays
- Flexible PTO
- 401K with ezCater match
- Health/dental/FSA
- Long-term disability insurance
- Mental health and family planning resources
- Remote-hybrid work from our awesome Boston office OR your home OR a mixture of both home and office
- A tremendous amount of responsibility and autonomy
- Wicked awesome co-workers
- Employee meal program (and many more goodies) when you’re in our office
Skills
- Market competitive salary
- Stock options that you’ll help make worth a lot
- 12 paid holidays
- Flexible PTO
- 401K with ezCater match
- Health/dental/FSA
- Long-term disability insurance
- Mental health and family planning resources
- Remote-hybrid work from our awesome Boston office OR your home OR a mixture of both home and office
- A tremendous amount of responsibility and autonomy
- Wicked awesome co-workers
- Employee meal program (and many more goodies) when you’re in our office
Benefits
- Market competitive salary
- Stock options that you’ll help make worth a lot
- 12 paid holidays
- Flexible PTO
- 401K with ezCater match
- Health/dental/FSA
- Long-term disability insurance
- Mental health and family planning resources
- Remote-hybrid work from our awesome Boston office OR your home OR a mixture of both home and office
- A tremendous amount of responsibility and autonomy
- Wicked awesome co-workers
- Employee meal program (and many more goodies) when you’re in our office
Pay
The national total target cash compensation range for this position, including base salary and bonus target, is $184,000–$232,000 annually.
Schedule
Remote work is available.