Principal Engineer - Search

Beyond is a technology consultancy helping organizations thrive in a rapidly changing world.

We build, modernize, scale, and operationalize technology, creating Cloud and AI solutions to unlock productivity and drive customer growth.

Role Overview

• We're looking for a technical leader to shape the next generation of intelligent search systems. This role offers the opportunity to define architectural strategy, lead transformative initiatives, and work at scale on search platforms infused with machine learning and semantic intelligence.

As a Principal Engineer at Beyond, you’ll:

• Lead the architecture and evolution of scalable, high-performance search backend systems, including the ingestion and processing pipelines for search data, indexing, query processing, ranking, and retrieval.
• Drive cross-functional initiatives to integrate modern search technologies such as semantic search, vector-based retrieval, and large language model (LLM) enhancements to improve search relevance and user experience.
• Define strategies to enhance the performance, reliability, and observability of search services, ensuring low-latency, high-availability systems.
• Design and implement frameworks for evaluating search quality through both offline metrics and live A/B experimentation.
• Champion engineering best practices and mentor engineers across teams, raising the bar for code quality and system design.
• Shape long-term technical direction by staying ahead of trends in advanced search technologies (including ML applications), distributed systems, and bringing these innovations into production.

Things that will make you stand out:

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 8+ years of experience designing and leading the development of large-scale distributed backend systems.
• Hands-on experience with search infrastructure or recommendation engines is a strong advantage.
• Deep familiarity with technologies such as Apache Beam, Pub/Sub, Redis, and other large-scale data processing frameworks essential for feeding and transforming data specifically for search indexing and retrieval.
• Expertise in backend development with Node.js and Python; knowledge of Scala or Golang is a plus.
• Proficient with ElasticSearch and similar search platforms, and experienced in integrating and consuming data from various SQL and NoSQL databases to build comprehensive search indexes.
• Demonstrated experience building robust APIs (REST, GraphQL) and operating in modern cloud environments (GCP, AWS), using Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD, and observability tools.
• Proven ability to lead and influence engineering direction across teams and functions.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to align diverse technical stakeholders around a cohesive vision.

Nice to Have

• Specialisation in search-related ML areas such as semantic search, vector retrieval, NLP, or recommendations.
• Experience integrating LLMs, developing custom model architectures, or deploying machine learning solutions in production to enhance search relevance, query understanding, or result summarization.

Having been named among the Sunday Times Best 100 Companies, we believe culture plays a large role in what we offer as an organization. We actively promote diversity in all its forms across our Studios, and we proudly, passionately, and proactively strive to create a culture of inclusivity and openness for all our employees.

Beyond is committed to welcoming everyone, regardless of gender identity, orientation, or expression. Our mission is to remove exclusivity and barriers and encourage new thinking and perceptions in a space of belonging. It is not about race, gender, or age, it is about people. And without our people being their most creative and innovative selves, we are nothing.