Principal Search Engineer (Solr/OpenSearch)

Job Description:

The Role:
Our teams build and contribute to Fidelity's digital presence. As a Principal Search Engineer on the Search Platform team, you will play a key role in designing, developing, and optimizing our search and content discovery platform, supporting millions of customer requests. You will be responsible for implementing and enhancing hybrid search solutions, and leveraging AI/ML techniques to improve search relevance and user experience. Your role will include building, managing, and automating cloud infrastructure to ensure robust, high-performance search capabilities for both internal associates and customers. You'll collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver innovative search solutions, contribute ideas for product enhancements, and continually develop your technical skills in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment.

The Expertise You Have:

• Deep expertise in implementing, configuring, and tuning enterprise-grade search solutions using Solr (preferred); experience with OpenSearch is a plus.
• Comprehensive knowledge of information retrieval principles, including both classic approaches (such as TF-IDF, BM25) and advanced neural search techniques (like vector embeddings and transformer-based models).
• Proficiency in container technologies, especially Kubernetes (AWS EKS preferred) and Docker.
• Solid understanding of the software development and delivery lifecycle for large-scale systems.
• Ability to design and implement automation and infrastructure solutions using languages such as Python, Groovy, Shell, and NodeJS.
• Experience with build tools and package managers (helm, maven, npm, pip, etc.).
• Familiarity with observability, monitoring, and logging tools such as Datadog, Splunk, or other OpenTelemetry/APM tools.
• Experience troubleshooting and resolving complex CI/CD pipelines, release issues, and multi-component system environments.

• Advanced degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

• Proven ability to lead technical efforts from conception through production deployment.
• Skill in translating business needs into scalable, effective search solutions.
• Ability to work collaboratively across organizations and drive successful outcomes.
• Passion and aptitude for learning new technologies and approaches, especially in the search and AI/ML space.
• Comfort operating in a polyglot development environment.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.