Senior Search Engineer

About the Role

As a Search Engineer at You.com, you will blend deep analytical thinking with practical engineering skills to investigate, develop, and implement novel solutions for our search indexing systems. Your work will focus on advancing the core technology that powers our search engine, ensuring that our index is comprehensive, up-to-date, and optimized for speed and relevance. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to translate complex research into practical, scalable applications.

This is a remote position open to candidates based in the United States. We also have co-working spaces in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York.

Responsibilities

• Design and Implement Scalable Indexing Systems: Architect, prototype, and maintain efficient, robust, and distributed indexing pipelines for web-scale data.
• Advance Search Retrieval/Ranking: Research and apply state-of-the-art methods (NLP, ranking, ML) to improve index quality, freshness, and retrieval performance.
• Collaborate Across Teams: Work closely with data engineers, ML engineers, and product teams to integrate novel features and user signals into the search systems.
• Profound love for Speed and Efficiency: Profile and optimize indexing workflows for low latency and high throughput.
• Evaluate and Benchmark: Define success metrics, run experiments, and analyze results to guide development and measure impact.
• Stay Current: Keep up with the latest research in information retrieval, large language models, and distributed systems—bringing fresh ideas to You.com’s search stack.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in search indexing, information retrieval, or large-scale data systems
• Strong programming skills in Rust/ C++ (for high performance) and Python
• Solid understanding of algorithms, data structures, and distributed systems.
• Experience with experimental design, prototyping, and translating research into production.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Practical experience equivalent or equal to a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

Our salary bands are structured based on a combination of geographic tiers and internal leveling. Compensation is determined by multiple factors assessed during the interview process, with the final offer reflecting these considerations.

Company Perks:

• Hubs in San Francisco and New York City offering regular in-person gatherings and co-working sessions
• Flexible PTO with U.S. holidays observed and a week shutdown in December to rest and recharge*
• A competitive health insurance plan covers 100% of the policyholder and 75% for dependents*
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave in the US*
• 401k program, 3% match - vested immediately!*
• $500 work-from-home stipend to be used up to a year of your start date*
• $600 technology stipend to support a portion of our hybrid/remote team's cell phone and internet expenses*
• $1,200 per year Health & Wellness Allowance to support your personal goals*
• The chance to collaborate with a team at the forefront of AI research

*Certain perks and benefits are limited to full-time employees only

Beware of Recruiting Scams: You.com will only contact you through official @You.com email addresses and will never ask for payment or sensitive personal information during the hiring process.

Use of AI Tools During Our Hiring Process: At You.com, we're thoughtful about how we use AI throughout our business — including our hiring process.

All employment decisions are made by our recruiting team and hiring managers based on a holistic review of each candidate and applicable evaluation criteria.