Workato

Staff AI Engineer, Search Relevance

Workato

full-time

Posted on:

Location Type: Office

Location: Palo Alto • California • 🇺🇸 United States

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Job Level

Lead

Tech Stack

Distributed SystemsElasticSearchPython

About the role

  • Lead the design, development, and optimization of intelligent search systems leveraging machine learning
  • Lead development of advanced query understanding systems that parse natural language, resolve ambiguity, and infer user intent.
  • Design and deploy 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 and support entity-aware retrieval.
  • Architect next-gen search infrastructure capable of supporting highly dynamic document corpora and real-time indexing.
  • Create and maintain graph-based knowledge systems that enhance LLM capabilities through structured relationship data.
  • Drive improvements in query rewriting, intent classification, and semantic search using statistical and neural methods.
  • Own design of evaluation frameworks for offline/online relevance testing, A/B experimentation, and continual model tuning.
  • Collaborate with product and applied research teams to translate user needs into data-informed search innovations.
  • Produce clean, scalable code and influence system architecture and roadmap across the relevance and platform stack.

Requirements

  • 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 fields
  • Strong proficiency in Python
  • Hands-on experience with search engines (Opensearch or Elasticsearch)
  • Strong understanding of information retrieval concepts including TF-IDF, BM25, vector embeddings, transformer models
  • Experience with text processing, NLP, and relevance tuning
  • Experience with relevance evaluation metrics (NDCG, MRR, MAP)
  • Experience with large-scale distributed systems
  • Proficiency in Knowledge Graph construction and optimization is a plus.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Strong communication abilities to explain technical concepts
  • Collaborative mindset for cross-functional teamwork
  • Detail-oriented with strong focus on quality
  • Self-motivated and able to work independently
  • Passion for solving complex search problems
Benefits
  • Flexible, trust-oriented culture
  • Flexible work arrangements
  • Emphasis on balancing productivity with self-care
  • Vibrant and dynamic work environment
  • Multitude of benefits employees can enjoy inside and outside of their work lives
  • Recognized as remote-friendly (#1 best company for remote workers by Quartz)

Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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

Hard skills
Pythonmachine learningquery understandinglearning-to-rank modelsEntity Recognitionsearch infrastructuregraph-based knowledge systemsquery rewritingintent classificationrelevance evaluation metrics
Soft skills
analytical skillsproblem-solving skillscommunication abilitiescollaborative mindsetdetail-orientedself-motivatedindependent work