Job Description:Discovery serves as a fundamental pillar of our platform, enabling users to explore everything from specific queries to new content. Joining the Search Backend team as a Senior Software Engineer, you will be instrumental in ingesting and delivering content to a variety of platform experiences. Our team is looking for a driven, innovative engineer who is excited to lead experimentation for the Search algorithm and has extensive experience building stable, production-level products rooted in core engineering principles.
Who you're committed to being:- You are eager to tackle the complexities of a search backend, from content ingestion to optimizing core metrics through Algolia feature utilization and experimental testing.
- You drive healthy team discussion. You bring thought-provoking questions and identify paint points while still contributing to psychological safety. These discussions lead to powerful learnings and action items for the entire team.
- You value the contributions of those around you and while you regularly provide valuable engineering leadership, you also embrace opportunities to let other team members lead and make decisions.
- You collaborate and decide on solutions with your team rather than dictate solutions to them. You value finding that ideal solution that balances the technical needs of the system with the strategic needs of the business. You facilitate discussions around trade offs.
- Delivering to customers energizes you and your drive inspires those around you. You feel a pragmatic urgency around delivering value to customers and see how engineering excellence unlocks our ability to deliver.
What you'll do:- Own Pluralsight's Search backend system
- Manage a system-critical, reliable, and scalable product - uptime and response time matter.
- You will work closely with the entire team (including Product, Design, Dev Ops, etc.) to build products with powerful impact.
- You will work as a team to design, implement, and analyze experiments.
- You play a key role in the consumption and production of data across the platform, interfacing with many teams at Pluralsight.
- You will take part in the team's on-call rotation, resolving alerts and taking ownership in implementing improvements.
Experience you'll bring:- Experience with information retrieval systems (e.g. Algolia, Elasticsearch)
- Experience with various components of a search pipeline such as query understanding, matching, and relevance
- Experience with streaming data (e.g. Kafka)
- Ability to discuss complex topics with both technical and non-technical audiences.
Requirements:- We value deep expertise and practical application. This role typically aligns with 8+ years of relevant experience, or 6+ years with an advanced degree. We encourage you to apply if you have equivalent practical experience that demonstrates your ability to succeed in this role.
- You have experience building software with Python, TypeScript (Node), and Postgres.
- You have experience designing and building public or shared APIs
- Experience delivering software frequently, and building robust deployment pipelines.
- You understand and can navigate complex issues around application performance, reliability, scalability, security, and data integrity.
- You have demonstrated that you are a strong collaborator, a trusted teammate, and are skilled at resolving conflict.
- Demonstrated the skills of a high-proficiency, senior engineer through delivery but also mentorship of others.
- This is a remote role; however, applicants located within 45 miles of our Westlake/Dallas, TX office should expect to work on-site Tuesday through Thursday, with remote flexibility on Mondays and Fridays. This approach enables more effective collaboration, quicker decision-making, and a stronger culture, while still providing flexibility.
Why you'll love working here:- We work in a blended environment that supports collaboration, flexibility, and connection across teams.
- We are mission-driven, shaping the future of tech upskilling and delivering impact that matters.
- We foster a culture of inclusion and belonging, where everyone can contribute and thrive.
- We are always learning, creating an environment where you can take on new challenges, expand your skills, and grow with purpose.
- Benefits include competitive compensation, bonus eligibility, comprehensive medical coverage, unlimited PTO, wellness reimbursement, professional development funds, and more.
Physical Requirements:This role is primarily performed in an office or home office setting and involves standard computer-based work.
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