Senior Software Engineer II

Senior Software Engineer II – Search Platform 

About the role 

We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer II to join the Search Platform team within Elsevier’s Search and AI Platform. This role is suited to an experienced backend engineer with hands-on search experience who enjoys working on large-scale, cloud-native systems and wants to deepen their impact in a platform environment. 

You’ll contribute to the core search infrastructure that powers products such as Scopus or ScienceDirect, working on search services, retrieval APIs, and index-backed capabilities that serve millions of users globally. You’ll take ownership of complex components, collaborate closely with peers, and deliver production-grade solutions under the guidance of senior and principal engineers. 

About the team 

The Search Platform Team is a core part of Elsevier’s Search and AI Platform. We own the foundations of search across Elsevier products, including search services, index-backed retrieval, ranking foundations, and content freshness. 

Our platform supports both lexical and semantic search use cases and is evolving to enable AI-augmented and LLM-powered discovery. We work closely with product, data science, and downstream consumer teams to ensure search capabilities are scalable, reliable, and fit for future growth. 

We are a global, highly collaborative team that values clean engineering, shared ownership, and continuous improvement. 

About the Business:

Elsevier is a global information analytics company specializing in science and health. For over 140 years we’ve partnered with the scientific and medical communities to advance knowledge, improve outcomes, and foster innovation. Our content and technology help researchers, educators, and healthcare professionals in over 170 countries make critical decisions with confidence. Elsevier is part of RELX, a top 10 FTSE 100 company and global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools

Responsibilities:

• Become a productive, trusted contributor to the Search Platform codebase 

• Design and deliver search-related features and improvements, from implementation through to production 

• Contribute to the reliability, scalability, and performance of Kubernetes-hosted search services 

• Work effectively with product, data science, and other engineering teams to translate requirements into working solutions 

• Provide thoughtful code reviews and technical input, supporting less experienced engineers where appropriate 

• Build deeper expertise in Elsevier’s search domain and platform architecture 

 Requirements:

• Experience of professional software engineering experience in backend or platform roles 

• Hands-on experience with search systems (e.g. Elasticsearch, Solr, OpenSearch, Lucene-based systems, or equivalent) 

• Strong Java experience, ideally using Spring / Spring Boot 

• Production experience with Kubernetes, including deploying and operating services 

• Experience building and running cloud-based systems (preferably AWS) with CI/CD pipelines 

Work in a way that works for you

We promote a healthy work/life balance across the organisation. We offer an appealing working prospect for our people. With numerous wellbeing initiatives, shared parental leave, study assistance and sabbaticals, we will help you meet your immediate responsibilities and your long-term goals.

Working flexible hours - flexing the times when you work in the day to help you fit everything in and work when you are the most productive

Working for you
 

We know that your wellbeing and happiness are key to a long and successful career. These are some of the benefits we are delighted to offer:

• Generous holiday allowance with the option to buy additional days
• Health screening, eye care vouchers and private medical benefits
• Wellbeing programs
• Life assurance
• Access to a competitive contributory pension scheme
• Save As You Earn share option scheme
• Travel Season ticket loan
• Electric Vehicle Scheme
• Optional Dental Insurance
• Maternity, paternity and shared parental leave
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Access to emergency care for both the elderly and children
• RECARES days, giving you time to support the charities and causes that matter to you
• Access to employee resource groups with dedicated time to volunteer
• Access to extensive learning and development resources
• Access to employee discounts scheme via Perks at Work

We know your well-being and happiness are key to a long and successful career. We are delighted to offer country specific benefits. Click here to access benefits specific to your location.

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