Apache Solr Lead / Architect

Role: Apache Solr Lead / Architect

Experience: - 10+ Years

Location: Irving, TX (Hybrid 3 days WFO)

Duration: - 6 Months Contract with possible extension

What is in it for you?

We are seeking an experienced Apache Solr Lead / Architect to conduct a comprehensive assessment of an existing Solr-based Contract Catalogue application. The role will focus on evaluating the current Solr architecture, indexing strategy, and operational setup, and providing actionable recommendations to address performance bottlenecks, scalability challenges, and resource constraints. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in Solr architecture, search optimization, and distributed indexing systems, and will be responsible for proposing improvements across design, operations, and user experience (UX) aspects, with the primary focus on architecture and indexing efficiency.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Solr Architecture & Design Assessment Perform in-depth analysis of the current Solr deployment architecture (standalone / SolrCloud) Evaluate: Cluster topology (nodes, shards, replicas) ZooKeeper configuration (if SolrCloud) Query routing and request handling Review overall solution design and integration with upstream/downstream systems Identify architectural gaps impacting performance, scalability, and fault tolerance
• Indexing Strategy & Data Modeling Assess existing index schema design including: Field types and field configurations Schema design (managed schema vs schema.xml) Tokenization, analyzers, and filters Evaluate: Data ingestion pipelines Full vs incremental indexing strategies Handling of large datasets and updates Recommend best practices for: Optimized schema design Index partitioning and sharding strategies Improving search relevancy and performance
• Performance & Resource Optimization Analyze current performance bottlenecks including: Query latency and throughput Indexing performance JVM tuning behavior Assess resource utilization: CPU, memory, disk I/O Cluster sizing and capacity planning Provide recommendations for: Query optimization Caching strategies (filter cache, query cache, document cache) Autoscaling and load balancing
• Operational Excellence & Monitoring Review operational practices including: Deployment and release processes Backup and recovery strategies Disaster recovery readiness Assess monitoring setup: Metrics collection (Prometheus, Grafana, etc.) ing mechanisms Log management Propose improvements for: Observability SLA adherence Production stability
• Scalability & Reliability Improvements Evaluate system readiness for: Data growth Increased query load Recommend improvements for: Horizontal scaling (sharding, replication) High availability Failover and resilience design
• UX & Search Experience (Secondary Focus) Review search capabilities from an end-user perspective: Relevance tuning Faceting and filtering Sorting and ranking Recommend enhancements for: Search response quality User interaction efficiency
• Assessment Deliverables Detailed Current State Assessment Report Identified gaps and risk areas Performance benchmarking findings Architecture and design recommendations Target state architecture (High-Level Design) Optimization roadmap with prioritized action.

Educational Qualifications: -

Engineering Degree BE/ME/BTech/MTech/BSc/MSc.

Technical certification in multiple technologies is desirable.

Skills: -

Mandatory skills

• 10+ years in search/data platforms, with 5+ years hands-on Apache Solr experience Deep expertise in: SolrCloud architecture Indexing and query optimization Schema design and analyzers.
• Strong knowledge of: Distributed systems and search platforms (Lucene-based) Data modeling and indexing strategies REST APIs and search integrations Performance & Operations
• Experience in: Solr performance tuning JVM tuning and memory management Capacity planning and scaling strategies
• Hands-on experience with: Monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, ELK) CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation Architecture & Consulting
• Experience Proven experience in: Conducting platform assessments / technical audits Providing optimization recommendations Designing scalable and high-availability architectures
• Strong ability to engage with stakeholders and provide executive-level recommendations

Nice to Have Experience with:

• Elasticsearch or other search engines (comparison insights) Cloud-based Solr deployments (Azure, AWS) Large-scale catalog/search applications (eCommerce, healthcare, etc.)
• Soft Skills Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills Ability to translate technical findings into business impact Strong analytical and problem-solving capability'
• 3 days' Work from Office with in person management and client interview.