Senior Java Engineer - Search Platform

What you bring:

• Education & Experience
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field
• 8+ years of experience in backend or distributed systems development
• 5+ years of hands-on experience with large-scale data processing or streaming systems
• Core Programming & System Design
• Deep expertise in Java (Java 11/17+) and JVM ecosystem
• Expert-level knowledge of Spring Framework (Boot, MVC, Security, Retry)
• Strong understanding of concurrency, multi-threading, and performance optimization
• Proven experience designing scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems
• Search & Information Retrieval
• Strong experience with search technologies (Solr / Elasticsearch / OpenSearch / Lucene)
• Deep understanding of indexing strategies, query execution, and relevance tuning
• Experience with hybrid retrieval (keyword + vector + semantic/LLM reranking)
• Hands-on experience with Learning to Rank (LTR), query understanding, and personalization
• Stream Processing & Distributed Systems
• Extensive experience with Apache Beam, Spark, or Storm
• Strong understanding of event-driven architectures and streaming pipelines
• Knowledge of processing semantics (exactly-once, at-least-once), windowing, and state management
• Data Storage & Persistence
• Strong expertise in NoSQL systems (preferably Cassandra)
• Experience with multi-tenant architectures and high-throughput systems
• Understanding of consistency models and distributed data design
• Familiarity with document stores and schema design
• Messaging & Event Systems
• Production experience with Kafka or similar systems
• Understanding of event sourcing, CQRS, and backpressure handling
• Security & Cloud
• Experience with OAuth and service-to-service authentication
• Knowledge of encryption (in transit and at rest) and KMS
• Familiarity with Kubernetes and containerized environments
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, Maven)
• Testing & Quality
• Strong experience with unit, integration, and distributed system testing
• Familiarity with JUnit, Mockito, and embedded test frameworks
• Understanding of testing strategies for distributed systems
• Value Competencies
• Drives technical vision and architectural decision-making
• Balances immediate delivery with long-term platform evolution
• Demonstrates strong ownership and accountability
• Mentors and uplifts team through technical leadership
• Collaborates effectively across engineering, product, and data science
• Operates with a startup mindset—speed with scalability
• Passion for solving complex search and relevance challenges at scale
• Meet your team:
• We are part of the CTO Organization for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at SAP, building a next-generation Search Platform that powers enterprise discovery at global scale.
• Our team works on cutting-edge challenges across distributed systems, search relevance, and AI-driven retrieval—combining traditional IR techniques with modern LLM-based approaches. We focus on building systems that are scalable, observable, and impactful, while fostering a culture of engineering excellence and innovation.
• Bring out your best SAP innovations help more than four hundred thousand customers worldwide work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively. Originally known for leadership in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, SAP has evolved to become a market leader in end-to-end business application software and related services for database, analytics, intelligent technologies, and experience management. As a cloud company with two hundred million users and more than one hundred thousand employees worldwide, we are purpose-driven and future-focused, with a highly collaborative team ethic and commitment to personal development. Whether connecting global industries, people, or platforms, we help ensure every challenge gets the solution it deserves. At SAP, you can bring out your best. We win with inclusion SAP’s culture of inclusion, focus on health and well-being, and flexible working models help ensure that everyone – regardless of background – feels included and can run at their best. At SAP, we believe we are made stronger by the unique capabilities and qualities that each person brings to our company, and we invest in our employees to inspire confidence and help everyone realize their full potential. We ultimately believe in unleashing all talent and creating a better world. SAP is committed to the values of Equal Employment Opportunity and provides accessibility accommodations to applicants with physical and/or mental disabilities. If you are interested in applying for employment with SAP and are in need of accommodation or special assistance to navigate our website or to complete your application, please send an e-mail with your request to Recruiting Operations Team: [email protected]. For SAP employees: Only permanent roles are eligible for the SAP Employee Referral Program, according to the eligibility rules set in the SAP Referral Policy. Specific conditions may apply for roles in Vocational Training.
• Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their age, race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, age, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, et al), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, or disability.
• Compensation Range Transparency: SAP believes the value of pay transparency contributes towards an honest and supportive culture and is a significant step toward demonstrating SAP’s commitment to pay equity. SAP provides the annualized compensation range inclusive of base salary and variable incentive target for the career level applicable to the posted role. The targeted combined range for this position is 148600 - 252600 (USD) USD. The actual amount to be offered to the successful candidate will be within that range, dependent upon the key aspects of each case which may include education, skills, experience, scope of the role, location, etc. as determined through the selection process. Any SAP variable incentive includes a targeted dollar amount and any actual payout amount is dependent on company and personal performance. Please reference this link for a summary of SAP benefits and eligibility requirements: SAP North America Benefits.
• AI Usage in the Recruitment Process
• For information on the responsible use of AI in our recruitment process, please refer to our Guidelines for Ethical Usage of AI in the Recruiting Process.
• Please note that any violation of these guidelines may result in disqualification from the hiring process. Requisition ID: 448602 | Work Area: Software-Design and Development | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Professional | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid