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About the role
Job Title: Principal Software Engineer – Platform, Search & AI Experience 8+ Years Location India (Hybrid) Job Type Full-Time Job Summary We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer – Platform, Search & AI to lead the architecture and development of scalable search platforms, distributed backend systems, and AI-powered solutions. This is a high-impact technical leadership role where you will define engineering standards, drive platform strategy, and build next-generation search and GenAI capabilities on AWS. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in Python, OpenSearch/Elasticsearch, distributed systems, AWS, and Generative AI technologies , including LLMs, RAG pipelines, semantic search, and vector databases. You will mentor engineering teams, influence technical decisions, and ensure the delivery of highly scalable and reliable AI-driven platforms. Key Responsibilities Platform Architecture & Technical Leadership
Define and drive the long-term technical vision and architectural roadmap for platform, search, and AI capabilities. Lead architecture discussions and provide technical guidance across multiple engineering teams. Design scalable, resilient, and secure distributed systems on AWS. Represent engineering in architecture reviews and technical governance discussions. Mentor senior engineers and promote engineering excellence across the organization.
Backend Development
Design and develop scalable backend services and microservices using Python. Build highly available APIs supporting search and AI applications. Drive best practices for software design, coding standards, and system reliability.
Search Platform Engineering
Architect and optimize enterprise search solutions using OpenSearch or Elasticsearch. Design efficient indexing strategies, search relevance models, and query optimization. Improve search performance, scalability, and operational reliability. Implement semantic and vector search capabilities.
Generative AI & Search Intelligence
Design and develop AI-powered search applications using Large Language Models (LLMs). Build Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines and embedding-based search solutions. Implement semantic search and vector database integrations. Develop AI evaluation frameworks for response quality, relevance, and regression testing. Drive adoption of enterprise AI best practices.
Quality Engineering
Define search quality metrics including Precision, Recall, NDCG, and MRR. Establish AI evaluation methodologies for benchmarking and automated scoring. Build frameworks for search relevance validation and LLM response evaluation. Drive continuous improvements in AI and search quality.
Cloud & DevOps
Design cloud-native solutions on AWS. Implement Infrastructure as Code using AWS CDK or CloudFormation. Champion CI/CD automation using GitHub Actions. Improve platform observability, monitoring, and operational excellence.
Required Skills & Qualifications Experience
8+ years of experience in Backend, Platform, or Distributed Systems Engineering. Proven experience leading technical architecture at Senior, Lead, Staff, or Principal Engineer level. Strong experience building enterprise-scale backend platforms.
Technical Skills
Expert-level programming experience in Python. Strong hands-on experience with OpenSearch or Elasticsearch. Experience designing distributed, high-performance systems. Hands-on experience with Generative AI technologies including:
Large Language Models (LLMs) Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) Semantic Search Embeddings Vector Search
Experience with AWS cloud services. Knowledge of REST APIs and Microservices architecture. Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions. Strong understanding of Infrastructure as Code (CDK or CloudFormation).
Search & AI Evaluation
Experience measuring search quality using:
Precision Recall NDCG MRR
Experience building AI evaluation frameworks and benchmarking LLM outputs. Understanding of AI regression testing and response quality validation.
Soft Skills
Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills. Strong communication and stakeholder management abilities. Proven mentoring and technical leadership experience. Ability to influence engineering direction across teams.
Preferred Skills
Amazon Bedrock Amazon SageMaker LangChain LlamaIndex Vector Databases (OpenSearch k-NN, pgvector, Pinecone) Search evaluation frameworks A/B testing for search relevance Online experimentation for AI systems CloudFormation AWS CDK
Primary Skills
Python OpenSearch Elasticsearch Generative AI Large Language Models (LLMs) Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) Semantic Search Vector Search Embeddings AWS Distributed Systems Microservices REST APIs GitHub Actions AWS CDK CloudFormation
Good to Have
Amazon Bedrock SageMaker LangChain LlamaIndex Pinecone pgvector Search Quality Evaluation AI Benchmarking A/B Testing Observability & Monitoring
What we believe
We’re proud to embrace the same values that have shaped UST since the beginning. Since day one, we’ve been building enduring relationships and a culture of integrity. And today, it's those same values that are inspiring us to encourage innovation from everyone, to champion diversity and inclusion and to place people at the centre of everything we do. Humility: We will listen, learn, be empathetic and help selflessly in our interactions with everyone. Humanity: Through business, we will better the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves. Integrity: We honour our commitments and act with responsibility in all our relationships.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
UST is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences, such as age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, religion, or sexual orientation.
All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, colour, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law. UST reserves the right to periodically redefine your roles and responsibilities based on the requirements of the organization and/or your performance.
• To support and promote the values of UST. • Comply with all Company policies and procedures
GenAI, OpenSearch, AWS, AWS CDK, AWS CloudFormation
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