Senior Software Engineer (Search)

Awetomaton is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to support a new customer by building enterprise search and discovery capabilities that unify access across disparate artifact types. In this role, you will design and operate search and indexing systems that federate discovery across heterogeneous sources, apply modern retrieval and ranking techniques (including vector search and retrieval-augmented generation) to surface the right data to the right user, and tune relevance and performance at large scale. This is a chance to take enterprise search, information-retrieval, and applied-AI skills built in commercial settings and apply them to the highest-stakes data-discovery problems. 

We are looking for a candidate to start in the August 2026 timeframe. This position allows hybrid flexibility but will require weekly site visits and customer meetings in Dayton, OH. 

DoD Top Secret clearance is required. For highly qualified candidates, we will sponsor. 

Criteria for success 

• Communicate effectively in both written and verbal form with peers & decision makers 
• Demonstrate expertise in building enterprise search and retrieval systems (vector search, semantic search, RAG) across heterogeneous, multi-format data sources 
• Design indexing and retrieval architectures that maximize relevance, explainability of ranking decisions, and performance under real-time query load 
• Apply modern retrieval and ranking techniques (embeddings, vector search, semantic search, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and entity resolution) to surface relevant results based on each user's role, access, and mission context
• Tenacity when tackling data access, permissions, and compliance requirements governing what each user can discover and retrieve 

Required Experience and Skills 

• BS degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• 6+ years of experience building and operating search, information-retrieval, or discovery platforms at scale
• Hands-on experience with modern search technologies (e.g., Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Solr, or comparable) and vector/embedding-based retrieval (e.g., a vector database or vector search library)
• Experience applying ML/NLP techniques to search, ranking, or retrieval problems - semantic search, RAG, learning-to-rank, or relevance tuning
• Experience designing systems that unify discovery across multiple, heterogeneous data types (text, structured data, imagery/geospatial, or similar)
• U.S. citizenship required; must be eligible to obtain a U.S. Top Secret security clearance

Desired Education and Experience 

• Prior experience supporting DoW or IC programs 
• Experience with geospatial or GIS data formats and search (e.g., OGC standards, feature services)
• Experience with access-aware or attribute-based retrieval, where results are governed by a user's role, clearance, or permissions rather than pure personalization
• Familiarity with enterprise metadata management, data cataloging, or data governance
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD tools such as Gitlab CI and ArgoCD
• Familiarity with Agile development framework 

About Awetomaton

We build software that enables humans to make informed decisions from raw intel data, with a specialization in satellite collection. We are a Dayton-based defense startup that believes there is a critical skill & culture gap - one we are filling with high-output, mission focused engineering talent. Results matter to our customers. We've never lost a customer because we deliver what they need. Awetomaton is where you do work that matters with a passionate team in an environment that inspires your creativity.

Benefits

We provide industry leading benefits that balance your health & wellbeing today, as well as lay a solid financial future into retirement. Highlights of our benefit plan include:

• Flexible time off totaling 36 days / year. No approvals required.
• 100% 401k company match up to IRS annual limits. This is a benefit of up to $24,500 for 2026.
• Health plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield with Health Savings Account (HSA). We pay 95% of employee premiums including family plans.
• Employee favorite: Tech and Wellness reimbursement of $3000 / year. Treat yourself with the newest gadgets or athletic gear. No approvals required.
• Annual profit sharing as 401k contribution. No set percent and dependent on annual company performance. Benefit is above and beyond 401k match.
• MacBook laptop and well-equipped office spaces for optimal productivity in office and on-the-go.