Databricks
Staff Software Engineer, AI Search
$166K–$225K
Mountain View, California · Staff · Full-time · Posted Jun 4, 2026
- Experience
- 10+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems.
About the job
Leads the architecture, development, and scaling of Databricks’ Search product, covering vector, keyword, and hybrid retrieval for AI and search-driven applications.
What you'll do
- Drive Search architecture and solve challenges across indexing, storage, query execution, and ranking.
- Lead engineering from design through production rollout, ensuring performance, correctness, and reliability.
- Mentor engineers and shape long-term technical direction in search, AI infrastructure, and data systems.
What they ask for
- 10+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems.
- Deep expertise in Search technologies, including vector, keyword, or hybrid search, and related retrieval domains.
- Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, and system design for large-scale retrieval and data systems.
- Experience leading architecture for performance-sensitive, large-scale systems and delivering high-impact initiatives.
Nice to have
- Familiarity with storage systems, recommendation engines, and database internals.
- Strategic, product-oriented mindset and experience mentoring engineers.
Pay
$166,000 — $225,000 USD (base salary)
Tools
Vector Search, Keyword Search, hybrid retrieval, vector embeddings
AI focus
Builds search and retrieval capabilities for AI applications, including RAG, AI assistants, and recommendation systems.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative