Staff Engineer

Work Location: Burlington, Massachusetts
Shift:
Department: LS-DI-EMI Prod Eng Item & Search
Recruiter: Anthony Johnson

This information is for internals only. Please do not share outside of the organization.

Your Role:

Our Digital and eCommerce division is looking to transform the Digital and eCommerce technology engine for MilliporeSigma. As a Staff Software Engineer Search, you will play pivotal role in driving the next generation of intelligent, high-performing search experiences for our global eCommerce platforms (e.g., sigmaaldrich.com and sigmaaldrich.cn) and build new features and components in our evolving platform, helping to embrace modern principles like microservices and event driven architectures.

You will be responsible for optimizing search relevance, tuning search engine behavior, and applying advanced AI/ML techniques to elevate how users discover and interact with products. You'll work closely with Product Owner, Data Scientists, and Software Engineers to deliver seamless and personalized search experiences that directly impact business outcomes.

About Our Technology

The Digital and eCommerce team currently operates several B2B websites and direct digital sales channels via a globally deployed cloud-based platform that are a growth engine for MilliporeSigma's Life Science business. We provide a comprehensive catalog of all products, enabling our customers to find products and purchase products as well as get detailed scientific information on those products.

Essential Job Functions:

• • Search Relevance Optimization: Analyze and enhance search relevance algorithms to ensure accurate and relevant search results for users.
  • Search Query Optimization: Implement and manage search query optimization strategies to optimize search results based on user behavior and business objectives.
  • Search Engine Management: Oversee the configuration and performance of search engines, ensuring they meet the evolving needs of the eCommerce platform.
  • AI/ML Integration: Leverage AI and machine learning technologies to develop and implement advanced search functionalities, including personalized search results and predictive search capabilities.
  • Collaboration: Work closely with product owner, data scientists, and software engineers to define and implement search-related features and improvements.
  • Performance Monitoring: Monitor search performance metrics and user feedback to identify areas for enhancement and implement data-driven solutions.
  • Problem-Solving: Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to think critically and creatively.
  • Communication: Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
  • Documentation: Maintain clear documentation of search algorithms, tuning strategies, and system configurations for internal teams.

Location:

The Staff Engineer can be located from either our Burlington, MA or St. Louis, MO facility. We do promote a hybrid flexible work schedule, supporting 2-3 days in office.

Who You Are

Minimum Qualifications:

• • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related quantitative field.
  • At least 8 years of hands-on in search relevance, Search Query Optimization and software engineering experience for eCommerce websites
  • Proven experience with at least one major search engine preferably Elasticsearch( or any Lucene based search engine such as Solr or OpenSearch)
  • Experience in Lexical search using algorithms like BM25, Semantic Search

Preferred Qualifications:

• • Deep understanding of search relevance tuning, search query optimization, ranking, tokenization, stemming, and query parsing
  • Experience building or integrating RAG-based architectures for LLM-assisted search use cases.
  • Experience with MLOps practices and tools.
  • Proven experience in Python and experience with ML frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Scikit-learn.
  • Recent experience in Java, Kotlin, Spring, Spring Boot is a plus
  • Mentor and guide engineers across the team, promoting a culture of engineering excellence and experimentation.
  • Ability to provide solutions based on business requirements.
  • Ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams.
  • Ability to work with global teams and a flexible work schedule.
  • Must have excellent problem-solving skills and be customer centric.
  • Excellent communication skills.
  • Experience with Microservices, CI/CD, Event Oriented Architectures and Distributed Systems
  • Experience with cloud environments (e.g., Google Cloud Platform, Azure, Amazon Web Services)
  • Experience leading product-oriented engineering development teams is a plus
  • Familiarity with DevOps practices/principles, Agile/Scrum methodologies, CI/CD pipelines and the product development lifecycle
  • Strong background in SQL and NoSQL databases
  • Familiarity with modern web APIs and full stack frameworks is a plus.
  • Experience with Java, Google Analytics, BigQuery, Cassandra, Docker, Kubernetes, Kafka, in memory caching are a plus
  • Familiarity with data manipulation and analysis libraries (e.g., Pandas, NumPy, Spark) is a plus.

The Company is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. No employee or applicant for employment will be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, gender identity, transgender status, marital status, or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. This policy of Equal Employment Opportunity applies to all policies and programs relating to recruitment and hiring, promotion, compensation, benefits, discipline, termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment. Any applicant or employee who believes they have been discriminated against by the Company or anyone acting on behalf of the Company must report any concerns to their Human Resources Business Partner, Legal, or Compliance immediately. The Company will not retaliate against any individual because they made a good faith report of discrimination.