Senior Software Engineer (Search / Retrieval)Palo Alto, CaliforniaWorkato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise MCP and trusted by 50% of the Fortune 500, Workato's cloud-native architecture connects every application, data source, and process to power real-time orchestration at scale. With enterprise-grade security and continuous innovation at its core, Workato provides the trusted foundation for organizations to automate with confidence and operationalize AI across the business.Ultimately, Workato believes in fostering a flexible, trust-oriented culture that empowers everyone to take full ownership of their roles.
We are driven by innovation and looking for team players who want to actively build our company.But, we also believe in balancing productivity with self-care. That's why we offer all of our employees a vibrant and dynamic work environment along with a multitude of benefits they can enjoy inside and outside of their work lives.If this sounds right up your alley, please submit an application. We look forward to getting to know you!Also, feel free to check out why:Business Insider named us an "enterprise startup to bet your career on"Forbes' Cloud 100 recognized us as one of the top 100 private cloud companies in the worldDeloitte Tech Fast 500 ranked us as the 17th fastest growing tech company in the Bay Area, and 96th in North AmericaQuartz ranked us the #1 best company for remote workersWe are looking for an exceptional Senior Software Engineer (Search / Retrieval) to join our growing team.
In this role, you will lead the design, development, and optimization of intelligent search systems that leverage machine learning at their core. You'll be responsible for building end-to-end retrieval pipelines that incorporate advanced techniques in query understanding, ranking, and entity recognition.Lead the development of advanced search cluster that can scale to millions of documents across customers and data sourcesDeploy learning-to-rank models that optimize relevance using behavioral signals, embeddings, and structured feedback.Build and scale robust Entity Recognition pipelines that enhance document understanding, enable contextual disambiguation, and support entity-aware retrieval.Architect next-gen search infrastructure capable of supporting highly dynamic document corpora and real-time indexing.Drive improvements in query construction, indexing and search performanceBe up-to-date with the latest improvements in search and indexing technologiesCollaborate with product and applied research teams to translate user needs into data-informed search innovationsProduce clean, scalable code and influence system architecture and roadmap across the relevance and platform stack.Qualifications / Experience / Technical Skills:Bachelors/Masters/PhD degree in Statistics, Mathematics or Computer Science, or another quantitative field.7+ years of backend engineering experience with 3+ years in search, information retrieval, or related fieldsStrong proficiency in PythonHands-on experience with search engines (Opensearch or Elasticsearch)Strong understanding of information retrieval concepts spanning traditional methods (TF-IDF, BM25) and modern neural search techniques (vector embeddings, transformer models)Experience with text processing, NLP, and relevance tuningExperience with relevance evaluation metrics (NDCG, MRR, MAP)Experience with large-scale distributed systemsStrong analytical and problem-solving skillsSoft Skills / Personal Characteristics:Strong communication abilities to explain technical conceptsCollaborative mindset for cross-functional team workDetail-oriented with strong focus on qualitySelf-motivated and able to work independentlyPassion for solving complex search problems