Search Engineer

UST is seeking a Search Engineer to support and enhance its UK search platforms, working primarily with Apache Solr and Amazon OpenSearch, including Serverless environments. This role involves production support, search development, and contributing to a live migration from Solr to OpenSearch. The ideal candidate will have experience managing L1, L2, and L3 search issues across large distributed systems, whether on EC2 or on-premises RHEL servers. Daily tasks are hands-on, involving Bash scripting, operational automation, and leveraging AI tools to accelerate troubleshooting and delivery.

Key Responsibilities
- Own end-to-end L1, L2, and L3 search support by diagnosing and resolving latency issues, indexing failures, cluster instability, authentication/TLS problems, and query regressions. Lead root cause analysis and implement lasting solutions.
- Debug distributed Solr and Elasticsearch/OpenSearch clusters on AWS EC2 and on-prem RHEL, utilizing CloudWatch, Splunk, host logs, and cluster APIs for effective incident resolution.
- Develop and optimize search components including schemas, analyzers, indexing processes, query performance, relevance tuning, and search APIs.
- Play an active role in the Solr to OpenSearch migration, handling schema and query translation, as well as conducting relevancy and performance validations.
- Write and maintain Bash scripts and operational automation tools to support deployments, day-2 operations, and incident response activities.
- Integrate AI and prompt engineering techniques into daily engineering workflows for investigation, scripting, and faster delivery.
- Collaborate closely with product and platform teams to enhance indexing pipelines, APIs, and AWS infrastructure.

Required Qualifications
- Extensive production experience with Solr and/or Elasticsearch in large distributed, multi-node environments on AWS EC2 or on-prem RHEL.
- Proven track record of resolving L1, L2, and L3 search incidents beyond feature development.
- Strong understanding of Lucene fundamentals, including schema design, analyzers, relevance tuning, shards, replicas, and cluster operations.
- Proficiency in Bash scripting and familiarity with AWS day-2 operations, particularly CloudWatch, Splunk, and log analysis on RHEL hosts.
- Ability to develop search-related code in Java and/or Python; experience with SQL and RDBMS-backed indexing is advantageous.
- Practical experience using AI tools and prompt engineering to expedite debugging, scripting, and implementation tasks.
- Excellent communication skills, especially under incident pressure.

Preferred Qualifications and Additional Skills
- Experience with OpenSearch, including Serverless deployments, or involvement in Solr to OpenSearch/Elasticsearch migrations.
- Exposure to Solr major-version upgrades.
- Familiarity with performance testing tools such as Gatling or Locust.
- Development of custom search plugins or expertise in matching and relevance APIs.
- Knowledge of infrastructure automation and CI/CD tools like Ansible, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Harness, or Jenkins.
- Experience with C++, authentication protocols (Okta/JWT, LDAP, SigV4), or TLS operations.
- AWS certification is a plus.

UST is committed to fostering a culture built on humility, humanity, and integrity. We listen, learn, and support one another with empathy, aiming to improve lives through our business. We honor our commitments and act responsibly in all relationships.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, UST values diversity and inclusion, ensuring that employment decisions are made without regard to age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic. We encourage candidates who share our values and are passionate about innovation and collaboration to apply.

Candidates should be prepared to support and promote UST’s core values and comply with company policies and procedures. This role offers an opportunity to work with cutting-edge search technologies and contribute to impactful digital transformation projects on a global scale.