Senior Apache Solr Search Engineer

Job Title: Senior Apache Solr Search Engineer

Job Location: Richmond, VA

Job Type: Contract

Pay Range: $55.00hr - $60.00hr

Job Overview:

5+ years of overall experience with 3+ years of hands-on expertise in Apache Solr Search implementation and optimization. The organization is seeking an experienced Apache Solr Search Specialist to design, develop, optimize, and support enterprise search solutions. The ideal candidate should possess strong expertise in Apache Solr architecture, indexing strategies, search performance tuning, and integration with enterprise applications.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design and implement scalable search solutions using Apache Solr.
• Configure and manage Solr collections, cores, schemas, and indexing pipelines.
• Develop and optimize complex search queries, filters, facets, boosting, and relevancy tuning.
• Implement full-text search, autocomplete, spell check, synonym management, and ranking algorithms.
• Analyze and improve search performance, indexing efficiency, and query response times.
• Integrate Solr with Java-based and web applications through REST APIs.
• Troubleshoot search issues, index corruption, replication, and cluster-related problems.
• Support SolrCloud deployments, sharding, replication, and high-availability configurations.
• Work closely with business analysts and application teams to define search requirements and relevancy models.
• Provide recommendations on search architecture, scalability, and best practices.

Required Skills:

• Strong hands-on experience with Apache Solr / SolrCloud.
• Expertise in search engine concepts including indexing, tokenization, stemming, analyzers, filters, and scoring.
• Experience in configuring schemas, managed schemas, dynamic fields, and custom analyzers.
• Knowledge of search relevancy tuning, boosting, faceting, highlighting, and query parsers.
• Experience with Solr administration, performance tuning, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
• Strong understanding of REST APIs and integration patterns.
• Experience with Java/J2EE-based applications.
• Familiarity with Linux environments and scripting.
• Experience with version control tools such as Git.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with Elasticsearch and comparative search architectures.
• Experience working with Guidewire applications and implementing/searching solutions using Apache Solr within Guidewire environments is highly preferred.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/Google Cloud Platform).
• Experience in Guidewire, Insurance, Financial Services, or large-scale enterprise applications.
• Exposure to CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
• Understanding of security, access control, and search governance.

Nice to Have:

• SolrCloud migration experience.
• Search analytics and relevance engineering expertise.
• Experience handling large-scale datasets (millions of documents).

Engagement Type:

• Subcontractor / Contract Resource.
• Immediate to 30-day joiner preferred.

Mandatory Keywords:

• Apache Solr, SolrCloud, Lucene, Search Optimization, Indexing, Faceting, Relevancy Tuning, Search APIs, Query Performance, Schema Design, Replication, Sharding, Search Architecture.

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• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Disability Insurance (Short-Term and Long-Term)
• Life and AD&D Insurance
• Paid Sick Leave (where required by applicable state or local law)
• Supplemental Insurance Plans
• Identity Theft Protection
• Pet Insurance
• Employee Wellness Programs
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Career Growth and Professional Development Opportunities