Search Engineer

Senior Software Engineer Ii

Our team is dedicated to unlocking the rich knowledge embedded within Elsevier's content through our semantic data platform; this empowers researchers, clinicians, and innovators worldwide to gain new insights, make informed decisions, and accelerate progress across research, healthcare, and life sciences. We lead the ongoing transformation of Elsevier's vast, unstructured information into richly interconnected knowledge graphs that capture the full depth and nuance of scientific meaning. Through our dynamic knowledge discovery layer, we combine graph-powered agentic AI with advanced vector search to deliver contextually relevant, trustworthy, and precise answers.

As part of the search engineering team, you will help build the next generation of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) capabilities that integrate traditional search with generative AI. The team focuses on improving relevance, retrieval performance, and platform scalability across complex document corpora.

About the role:

We are seeking a senior software engineer ii with deep expertise in search infrastructure and modern retrieval systems. You'll design, build, and optimize high-performance search services using technologies like opensearch and elasticsearch, deployed at scale on eks. You will contribute to the development of new rag-based search workflows and ensure our platform delivers fast, relevant, and reliable results.

Responsibilities:

• Design and implement scalable search systems leveraging elasticsearch/opensearch and container orchestration via eks.
• Develop retrieval-augmented generation (rag) pipelines that integrate search with generative ai tools.
• Write clean, modular, and testable code in python and java.
• Diagnose and resolve complex issues across distributed search infrastructure.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align engineering efforts with product goals.
• Mentor less-experienced engineers and participate in code reviews and technical design discussions.
• Support ci/cd pipelines and implement observability for search performance and reliability.
• Stay up-to-date on advancements in retrieval models, semantic search, and generative ai integration.

Requirements:

• 5+ years of experience in software engineering with a focus on distributed systems or search technologies
• Expertise in python and java
• Strong experience with elasticsearch or opensearch in production environments
• Familiarity with kubernetes and eks deployments
• Deep understanding of performance optimization in large-scale search systems
• Solid grasp of test-driven development and ci/cd practices
• Ability to work independently on complex problems and deliver production-ready code
• Comfortable working in agile or iterative environments
• Experience building or integrating rag pipelines is a plus.
• Familiarity with semantic search, embeddings, or vector databases is a plus.
• Knowledge of logging, alerting, and observability in search infrastructure is a plus

Work in a way that works for you:

We promote a healthy work/life balance across the organization. We offer an appealing working prospect for our people. With numerous wellbeing initiatives, shared parental leave, study assistance and sabbaticals, we will help you meet your immediate responsibilities and your long-term goals.

This is a hybrid role. Our teams operate in a flexible hybrid work model, combining in-person collaboration with remote flexibility. You'll be expected to participate in regular team meetings and engineering rituals in line with your team's cadence.

Working for you:

We know that your well-being and happiness are key to a long and successful career. These are some of the benefits we are delighted to offer:

• Private Medical/Dental Plan
• Savings Fund
• Life Insurance
• Meal/Grocery Voucher

At elsevier, you'll work on systems that underpin some of the world's most critical research and innovation workflows. Our products and platforms are used by scientists, clinicians, and experts in over 180 countries — and you'll be part of the team responsible for building the data infrastructure that powers them.

You'll be supported by a culture that values engineering quality, autonomy, and deep technical exploration. We are actively transforming legacy systems and pioneering modern approaches to data and knowledge representation at scale.