Senior Engineering Manager, Search – Cognition System

Twelve Labs

Senior Engineering Manager leading development of search systems for AI models at Twelve Labs. Owning search functionality end-to-end in a global context with innovative approaches.

Posted 6/26/2026full-timeSeoul • 🇰🇷 South KoreaSeniorWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Distributed SystemsElasticSearch

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Own the search system end-to-end (e.g., vector/ANN indexing, lexical retrieval, hybrid fusion, reranking, and temporal (segment-level) search), built on Marengo embeddings and Pegasus and scaled to millions of hours across both ingestion and index creation.
Design and build the agentic search harness that infers human *and* agent intent and orchestrates multi-turn, session-based (conversational), and parallel search sessions, including subagents that can be invoked by a primary agent.
Set and own the search-quality bar for both human- and agent-initiated search, and drive continuous improvement against them.
Own reliability and systems design for the search stack so the system stays dependable as both human and agent traffic grows.
Drive cross-functional alignment with Research/Training, Platform/Infra, and Product on retrieval strategy, API contracts, and system boundaries.
Build and lead the team: recruit strong engineers and scientists, set engineering patterns and standards across the search stack, and raise the bar through architecture review, code review, and technical mentorship.

Requirements

What you’ll need

7+ years building production ML or search systems, with deep experience in search, retrieval, or recommendation at scale.
Engineering leadership where you've built and led teams of engineers (and scientists), and you can attract, hire, and grow senior ICs.
Deep experience with information retrieval systems (e.g. embedding-based search, lexical search (BM25 / OpenSearch / Elasticsearch), hybrid retrieval, reranking, and score normalization) at production scale.
Strong system-design instincts across ML infrastructure, distributed systems, and developer-facing platforms.
Good English communication skills, verbal and written.

Benefits

Comp & perks

글로벌 B2B 고객과 함께 성장하는 Global Team
자율성과 협업을 모두 갖춘 하이브리드 근무
전 직원에게 맥북 및 70만 원 상당 재택근무 장비 지원, 3년 주기로 최신 장비 교체
식사·교통비 등 자유롭게 사용할 수 있는 월 60만 원 한도 법인카드 제공
사무실 내 스낵바(간식, 커피, 신선식품 제공)
연말 2주간 겨울방학 운영
연 1회 건강검진 지원

ATS Keywords

✓ Tailor your resume

Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools

machine learninginformation retrievalembedding-based searchlexical searchBM25OpenSearchElasticsearchhybrid retrievalrerankingscore normalization

Soft Skills

engineering leadershipteam buildingtechnical mentorshipcross-functional alignmentcommunication skills