Senior Search Engineer (Generative AI)

We are seeking a Senior Search Engineer (Generative AI) to design and optimize advanced search solutions powered by modern AI technologies. In this role, you will architect scalable search systems, fine-tune relevance and ranking, and integrate generative AI capabilities to deliver exceptional user experiences. You will collaborate closely with product owners, business stakeholders, and engineering teams to translate complex business needs into impactful technical solutions.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimize search solutions leveraging Azure AI Search and other modern search engines
• Tune relevance, ranking algorithms, and query performance for full-text, vector, semantic, and hybrid search approaches
• Architect and develop microservices and event-driven systems within the Azure ecosystem
• Implement document indexing, text analysis, and search schema design aligned with business goals
• Build and maintain data ingestion pipelines and ETL/ELT processes to support search workloads
• Define and monitor search quality metrics such as precision, recall, MRR, and NDCG
• Run A/B testing experiments to validate and improve search relevance
• Collaborate with product owners and business stakeholders to align technical solutions with business impact
• Ensure adherence to clean code principles, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps practices
• Mentor team members and contribute to a strong engineering culture in a complex technical environment

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience as a Search Engineer or in a similar backend/data-focused role
• Deep hands-on expertise in Azure AI Search (formerly Azure Cognitive Search) in production environments
• Proven background in search engines such as Elasticsearch, Solr, or Azure AI Search
• Strong understanding of analyzers, tokenizers, and char/token filters, along with relevance tuning in full-text search engines
• Knowledge of search relevance, ranking algorithms, and query optimization
• Skills in vector search, semantic search, and hybrid search approaches
• Hands-on experience with the Azure ecosystem, including Azure Functions, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure Service Bus
• Familiarity with cloud-native application development across Azure, AWS, or GCP
• Competency in microservices architecture, event-driven design patterns, and integration via RESTful APIs and GraphQL
• Understanding of clean code principles, CI/CD pipelines, and Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform, ARM templates, or CloudFormation
• Capability to deep dive into business context, validate technical solutions against business flows, and understand how search influences user experience and business metrics
• Excellent problem-solving skills, proactive mindset, and fast learning ability
• Strong English communication skills (B2 level or higher)

Nice to have

• Proficiency in at least one major programming language such as Java, C#, Python, or Scala, with experience in Spring or .NET frameworks
• Expertise in RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) patterns, Azure AI Foundry, and Azure OpenAI Service integration
• Background in prompt engineering, LLM evaluation techniques, multi-agent systems, or agentic AI architectures
• Familiarity with Azure Databricks, Synapse Analytics, and Azure Data Factory, as well as Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and Azure Key Vault
• Showcase of cross-platform search experience with OpenSearch, Algolia, or search analytics tools like Datadog, Kibana, and Grafana

Benefits

With us you can:

• Work on a flexible schedule remotely or from any of our comfortable offices or coworking spaces in Ukraine
• Receive the necessary equipment to perform your work tasks
• Change projects and technology stacks within EPAM
• Gain experience in various business domains (Insurance, E-commerce, Healthcare, Finance, Travelling, Media, Artificial Intelligence, and more)
• Relocation opportunities may be available for eligible candidates, depending on the role and openings at other EPAM locations
• Participate in volunteer, charity programs and communities (both technical and interest-based)

We focus on your professional growth:

• You can plan your individual career path together with your manager
• Receive regular feedback from colleagues
• Improve your English for free with certified teachers (Speaking Clubs, client interview preparation courses, etc.)
• Get the opportunity to undergo free training and certification in AWS, GCP, or Azure Clouds
• Use the internal E-learn training program (18,200+ specialized training and mentoring programs)
• Access corporate accounts on LinkedIn Learning, Get Abstract and other partner resources
• Study at EPAM Solution Architecture School with the instructors who are practicing architects
• Develop as a leader, join Delivery Management, Resource Management, Leadership Essentials school and more
• Participate in internal communities (500+ meetups, technical discussions, brainstorming sessions, online events and conferences annually)

What we offer:

• Vacation and sick leave (including a sick leave without a medical certificate)
• A wide range of Voluntary Medical Insurance programs providing both medical treatment and various preventive options (including sports activities)
• Medical insurance for family members at corporate rates
• Company support during significant life events (childbirth or adoption, marriage, etc.)
• Support for psychological comfort: discounts on services from mental health specialists or coaches, thematic training
• E-kids program - a free programming language training program for EPAMers' children