About the company
Our client is a fast-growing software company.
The role
Raydar is recruiting for this role on behalf of our client. Take charge of the relevance and performance of a large-scale search platform, combining backend engineering with hands-on ranking work. The position carries full responsibility for services across their lifecycle, from initial design through live operation.
What you'll do
- Lead efforts to improve the quality of results returned by a retrieval system.
- Build the data collection, indexing and query-serving components of a search offering.
- Bring down response times and the cost of each query as traffic increases.
- Take full responsibility for services from first design through launch, monitoring and ongoing refinement.
- Collaborate with search leadership and peers to shape the technical plan.
Requirements
What we're looking for
- At least 3 years as the primary owner of the indexing and query-serving layers of a live search engine operating at meaningful scale.
- A track record of ranking improvements you drove, with the measured business or quality result to show for it.
- Practical experience tuning result relevance with techniques such as keyword scoring, embedding-based retrieval and result re-ordering, on an engine you run.
- Backend programming skill in Go, Rust, Python or a comparable language.
- A balanced focus on speed, cost and correctness when running search services under heavy query load.
- Comfort turning loosely defined problems into working systems, preferring to release, measure and adjust.
- Ability to work on-site five days a week in San Francisco or Toronto, either already local or relocating before starting.
Bonus points
- Background at a company where search is the main product, such as web search, AI-powered search or large marketplace search.
- Time spent at a young, rapidly growing company.
Benefits
Compensation and benefits
- Base salary: USD 235,000 to 260,000 per year
- Equity
- Health, dental and vision coverage
- Life and disability insurance
- Retirement plan
- Paid time off
- Paid parental leave
Location and work model
- San Francisco, CA, United States or Toronto, ON, Canada
- On-site, five days a week
- Full-time
Skills Required
- At least 3 years owning indexing and query-serving layers of a live search engine at meaningful scale
- Demonstrated ranking improvements with measurable business or search-quality results
- Practical experience tuning search relevance using keyword scoring, embedding-based retrieval, and result re-ordering
- Backend programming skills in Go, Rust, Python, or a comparable language
- Ability to balance speed, cost, and correctness for search services under heavy query load
- Ability to turn loosely defined problems into working systems and iterate through release, measurement, and refinement
- Ability to work on-site five days per week in San Francisco or Toronto, either locally or after relocating
- Experience at a company where search is the primary product, such as web search, AI-powered search, or large marketplace search
- Experience working at a young, rapidly growing company
What We Do
Raydar is a talent acquisition and business consulting firm that connects world-class and emerging talent with growing organizations. It supports companies through team development, strategic hiring, and customized growth solutions, helping clients recruit roles such as engineers, product managers, executives, legal counsel, and quantitative traders. Raydar focuses on understanding each organization’s needs, culture, and long-term goals to build high-impact teams.
