Software Engineer - Search Infrastructure

Xai
Palo Alto, CA
On-site

Who this role is best for

Strong fit for backend engineers with distributed systems expertise who thrive in fast-paced environments and can contribute to search infrastructure design.

Best fit for

  • Individuals with a deep understanding of search technologies and a history of full ownership of complex problems
    — “Hands-on experience with search and indexing technologies (Elasticsearch, Lucene, or similar) and an understanding of how they work and why”
  • Engineers who are comfortable with shifting priorities and can operate in a flat, leadership-driven structure
    — “Comfortable moving quickly in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities and tight deadlines”

Things to consider

  • The role requires a high level of ownership and problem-solving autonomy
    — “Ability to take full ownership of problems and learn whatever is needed to solve them”
  • Candidates must be prepared for a high-performance culture with strict reliability and latency requirements
    — “handles massive write and query loads with strict latency and reliability requirements”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with real-time indexing and query execution in your resume and interviews
    — “Design and build large scale search infrastructure (real-time indexing, serving, and data pipelines)”
  • Showcase contributions to open-source search or infrastructure projects if applicable
    — “Contributions to open-source search or infrastructure projects”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Design and build large scale search infrastructure
  • Operate production services end to end
  • Lead and drive incident responses and recovery
  • Contribute to incident postmortems
Typical background
5+ years developing large-scale infrastructureHands-on experience with search and indexing technologies

Skills & requirements

Required

Large-scale InfrastructureDistributed SystemsHigh Performance RustC++Jvm-based LanguagesSearch And Indexing TechnologiesOperating System InternalsFilesystemsNetworkingDatabase Storage EnginesPerformanceReliabilityScalabilityQuality

Preferred

Open-source ContributionsAI Systems

Stack & domain

RustC++Jvm-based LanguagesSearch And Indexing TechnologiesOperating System InternalsFilesystemsNetworkingDatabase Storage EnginesProblem SolvingTeamworkCommunicationLeadershipOwnershipSearch InfrastructureDistributed SystemsStorage Architecture

About the role

Original posting from Xai via Greenhouse

SpaceXAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

As a backend engineer, you’ll design and build scalable, high-performance systems that power subscriptions infrastructure, new monetized products, user growth, and creator monetization. You’ll work on mission-critical infrastructure that processes millions of transactions, optimizes user acquisition and retention, and enables creators to earn a living through their content. This is a unique opportunity to make a large-scale revenue impact while creating products that users and businesses love.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Design and build large scale search infrastructure (real-time indexing, serving, and data pipelines) that handles massive write and query loads with strict latency and reliability requirements

Go deep into search internals (indexing, query execution, and relevance) and help shape the technical direction of the core search infrastructure

Operate production services end to end, including monitoring, debugging, incident response, and performance optimization

Lead and drive incident responses and recovery with your peers. Review and contribute to incident postmortems and hold a high bar for the same

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

5+ years developing large-scale infrastructure, distributed systems  or experience with storage or hardware architecture.

Proficient in high performance Rust, C++  or JVM-based languages

Hands-on experience with search and indexing technologies (Elasticsearch, Lucene, or similar) and an understanding of how they work and why

Experience with operating system internals, filesystems, networking, or database storage engines

Obsessed performance, reliability, scalability and quality

Ability to take full ownership of problems and learn whatever is needed to solve them

Comfortable moving quickly in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities and tight deadlines

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

Contributions to open-source search or infrastructure projects

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

$150,000 - $400,000 USD

Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at xAI, which also includes equity, comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short & long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and various other discounts and perks.

SpaceXAI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our Recruitment Privacy Notice.

Source: Xai careers (Greenhouse)

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