Lead Software Engineer – OpenSearch / Elasticsearch

Position Overview:

We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer with strong software development and production engineering experience to support a large-scale search environment.

The ideal candidate will have deep hands-on experience with OpenSearch and/or Elasticsearch and a strong understanding of how applications are designed, developed, deployed, monitored, and supported end-to-end.

This is a highly technical role focused on production support, search infrastructure, application development, system improvements, troubleshooting, and technical leadership. Candidates with strong software engineering or architecture backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
Important: Deep OpenSearch/Elasticsearch experience is highly preferred. The team needs someone who can come in and contribute immediately with minimal ramp-up or training.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide production support for a large-scale search environment.
• Maintain and optimize OpenSearch/Elasticsearch clusters, configurations, and visualizations.
• Work closely with eCommerce, engineering, infrastructure, and other cross-functional teams.
• Add, split, scale, and reorganize search clusters as business and technical requirements evolve.
• Continuously improve production operations, reliability, performance, and scalability.
• Analyze and troubleshoot complex production issues and identify root causes.
• Design, develop, test, debug, and maintain software applications and enhancements.
• Author, review, and approve technical designs.
• Develop extensible, scalable, and maintainable software solutions.
• Review code for functionality, quality, maintainability, and alignment with technical designs.
• Own complex technical stories, integrations, business requirements, dependencies, and critical paths.
• Identify technical risks and develop contingency plans and timelines.
• Define meaningful metrics and targets for the technical domain.
• Drive measurable improvements in engineering processes and best practices.
• Evaluate and stabilize emerging technologies.
• Collaborate with business users, technical teams, project teams, and management.
• Mentor engineers and share technical knowledge and best practices.
• Provide technical guidance to contractors and other team members.
• Promote Agile engineering practices and encourage team collaboration.

Required Skills

OpenSearch / Elasticsearch – Critical Requirement

• Deep hands-on experience with OpenSearch and/or Elasticsearch.
• Strong understanding of search architecture, clusters, indexing, configuration, troubleshooting, and production support.
• Experience working with large-scale search environments.
• Ability to troubleshoot and resolve complex search-related production issues.
• Candidates must be able to contribute immediately with minimal training.

Technical Stack

• OpenSearch / Elasticsearch
• Kibana
• Log Search / Logging Platforms
• Grafana
• Kubernetes / Docker
• Rancher
• Linux / Linux Command Line
• Python
• Kafka
• Logstash
• CI/CD pipelines – primarily maintenance and support rather than building pipelines from scratch

Software Engineering Experience

• Strong software development background with mastery of at least one programming language.
• Experience designing and developing applications end-to-end.
• Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills.
• Experience with application deployment, production support, and maintenance.
• Ability to understand complex applications and their dependencies.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, design patterns, and engineering best practices.
• Experience reviewing technical designs and code.
• Ability to solve complex technical problems independently.

Nice to Have

• Azure experience
• Security experience
• Ansible / automation
• Retail or eCommerce industry experience
• Experience with on-premises infrastructure
• Cloud and distributed systems experience

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a strong software engineer, senior technical lead, or architect who understands applications from end to end—from design and development through deployment, monitoring, troubleshooting, and production support.

A candidate with exceptionally strong software engineering experience may be considered even if their OpenSearch/Elasticsearch experience is not extensive, provided they have meaningful experience with search technologies and can demonstrate strong technical depth.

Work Environment

• 4 days onsite in Rocklin, CA
• Monday through Thursday onsite
• Fast-paced production environment
• Highly collaborative, cross-functional engineering organization
• Strong emphasis on reliability, scalability, and continuous improvement
  
  Interested candidates: Please send your updated CV/resume to