Databricks

Technology

StaffSoftwareEngineer,AISearch

$350–550k ~AI est. Mountain View, California, United States
Market Sentiment
HIGH DEMAND

Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Senior candidates.

The Brief

“Staff Software Engineer, AI Search at Databricks. Skills: Search technologies, Distributed systems, AI infrastructure. Drive architecture and evolution of Search product. Deliver scalable, low-latency, high-quality retrieval”

Industry & Context.

Technology
Problems you'll solve

Identify and solve challenges

What They're Looking For.

Must Have

10+ years of experience building distributed systems, Deep expertise in Search technologies, Foundation in algorithms, data structures, system design, Proven ability to deliver technically complex initiatives, Experience leading architecture for performance-sensitive systems

Nice to Have

Familiarity with storage systems, Familiarity with recommendation engines, Familiarity with database internals

What You'll Do.

Drive architecture and evolution of Search product

high-quality retrieval

Identify and solve indexing challenges

Solve storage challenges

Solve query execution challenges

Solve ranking challenges

Blend innovations in vector search

Blend innovations in keyword search

Blend innovations in hybrid retrieval

Partner with infrastructure teams

Partner with product teams

Partner with research teams

Shape developer experiences

Lead end-to-end engineering efforts

Ensure high standards for performance

Ensure high standards for correctness

Ensure high standards for reliability

Make direct contributions to core systems

Champion software engineering excellence

Mentor other engineers

Contribute to long-term planning

Influence Databricks’ technical direction

How You'll Work.

Team & Collaboration

Collaborate across teams; Partner with infrastructure teams; Partner with product teams; Partner with research teams

Full Job Description

RDQ427R351 At Databricks, we are passionate about enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems — from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthroughs. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform so our customers can use deep data insights to improve their business. Search plays a foundational role in this mission. Whether through keyword-based retrieval, semantic similarity via vector embeddings, or hybrid approaches that combine both, our Search technologies help customers find, discover, and understand information across massive, complex datasets. These capabilities power everything from Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), AI assistants, and recommendation systems to enterprise knowledge management, in-product search, and data exploration. As a Staff Engineer for Search, you’ll play a critical role in building and scaling our next-generation Search product — spanning Vector Search, Keyword Search, and Search Quality. You’ll drive the design and evolution of a highly-performant, cost-efficient, and developer-friendly Search stack that enables customers to build AI applications with accuracy, speed, and scale. Beyond hands-on contributions, you’ll help define the long-term vision, mentor senior engineers, collaborate across teams, and lead strategic efforts that expand the technical and business impact of Search at Databricks. The impact you will have: Drive the architecture and evolution of the Search product, delivering scalable, low-latency, and high-quality retrieval across massive multimodal datasets. Identify and solve challenges in indexing, storage, query execution, and ranking — blending innovations in vector search, keyword search, and hybrid retrieval techniques. Partner with infrastructure, product, and research teams to shape APIs and developer experiences that make it easy to build production-grade, AI-powered and search-driven applicat

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