Staff/Principal Software Engineer, Full Text Search

About Pinecone

Pinecone is the leading vector database for building accurate and performant AI applications at scale in production. Pinecone's mission is to make AI knowledgeable. More than 5000 customers across various industries have shipped AI applications faster and more confidently with Pinecone's developer-friendly technology. Pinecone is based in New York and raised $138M in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, ICONIQ, Menlo Ventures, and Wing Venture Capital.

About the Team and Role:

We're looking for a Staff or Principal-level Software Engineer to join the Pinecone Engineering Team. This role focuses on full-text search and its tight integration with vector search at scale. In this role, you will build the next generation of our search capabilities at Pinecone. You will provide guidance and direction for Pinecone’s core search infrastructure including indexing, retrieval, and relevance. This role requires cross-team collaboration and expertise in search internals and high performance computing.

Responsibilities:

- You will define, lead, and contribute to the evolution of core full-text search and indexing capabilities.

- You’ll research advances in search infrastructure, data structures, and retrieval algorithms to ensure we’re building the most efficient and powerful foundations for our users.

- You’ll work closely with our partners and product team to understand customer needs and help shape the long-term technical vision for search at Pinecone.

- You’ll leverage your past experience building large-scale search systems to drive an innovative roadmap for Pinecone’s indexing, query execution, and relevance layers.

Requirements:

- Significant hands-on experience with full-text search and indexing technologies such as Elasticsearch, Lucene and/or Solr.

- 7+ years of experience with Java, Rust, Go or C++.

- 7+ years of developing, monitoring and operating large scale distributed systems.

- BS in Computer Science, a related technical field or equivalent experience.

Perks & Benefits:

Comprehensive health coverage including medical, dental, vision, and mental health resources, 401(k) Plan, Flexible time off, Paid parental leave, Annual Company Retreat, WFH flexibility and equipment stipend.

If you are interested in the position, we would encourage you to apply, even if you don’t believe you meet every one of the qualifications listed in this posting. All qualified applicants will receive considerations for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, veteran status, and any other legally protected status under federal, state, or local anti-discrimination laws.