Senior Software Engineer, Search & AI

Job description

Muck Rack is trusted by thousands of organizations around the world to understand how their brands show up across news, social media and AI-generated answers. Our AI-powered platform connects the entire PR workflow in one place, helping communications teams manage media relationships, understand the conversations shaping their brands, take action and measure their impact. Combined with analyst-led Media Intelligence and advisory services, Muck Rack turns signals into insights and insights into action. Founder-controlled and growing profitably and sustainably, we have the freedom to build forward-thinking products, put our customers first, and offer an inclusive culture that welcomes diverse perspectives. We’re looking for a collaborative, self-motivated **Senior Software Engineer, Search & AI** to join our growing team. As a Senior Software Engineer, you’ll help build and evolve the customer-facing search experiences that help users discover relevant, high-quality content, along with the backend systems that power them. You’ll work across the stack, with a slight emphasis on frontend development, and collaborate closely with engineers, Product, and Design to deliver intuitive search experiences backed by reliable, scalable search and data systems. ## **What You'll Do** - Own and deliver customer-facing search features and workflows across frontend and backend systems, from technical planning through production - Build AI-powered product experiences end to end, from the services behind them to the interfaces that make their output useful and trustworthy - Build intuitive, responsive user experiences using Vue while contributing to the Python and Django services that power them - Design and improve search, indexing, and retrieval systems that support high-quality content discovery across large volumes of data - Build and maintain features and data workflows that leverage technologies such as Elasticsearch, Kafka, Celery, and MySQL - Make thoughtful technical decisions and trade-offs that balance customer experience, delivery speed, performance, reliability, and long-term maintainability - Collaborate closely with Product, Design, and engineering teammates to shape solutions, clarify requirements, and deliver high-quality customer experiences - Troubleshoot complex production issues and drive improvements to the performance, reliability, observability, and maintainability of the systems you work on - Participate in an on-call and incident response rotation, helping diagnose and resolve production issues and improve system reliability over time ## **To Be Set Up for Success in This Role, You'll Need to Have** - 5+ years of professional software engineering experience building and maintaining production software - Strong experience working across frontend and backend systems and independently delivering features throughout the application stack - Proficiency with Python or a similar programming language and experience with Django or a comparable web framework - Experience building polished, maintainable user-facing applications with Vue.js or another modern JavaScript framework - Experience with Elasticsearch or a comparable search technology, or significant experience working with data-intensive systems - Experience making technical trade-offs within complex production systems while balancing immediate delivery needs with long-term quality - Experience diagnosing production issues and contributing to the reliability and operational health of the systems you build - Experience with TypeScript in a large codebase - Experience with design systems or shared component libraries - Flexibility to adjust working hours for overlap with teammates in US time zones ## **If Any of the Below Also Describe You, This Could Be an Exciting Opportunity** - Experience with Kafka or other streaming or event-driven technologies - Experience with MySQL, Postgres, or other relational databases - Experience with Celery or other asynchronous task-processing systems - Experience building search, discovery, indexing, or information-retrieval features - Experience improving frontend architecture, performance, or complex customer-facing workflows - Experience working with high-traffic SaaS applications or systems that process large volumes of data - Experience building customer-facing features backed by LLMs or other AI models - Experience judging whether an AI-backed feature is actually working, through evaluation, testing, or user feedback - Interest in journalism, news, media, or social media ## **In Addition, We're Always Looking for Candidates Who** - Communicate complex technical ideas clearly and collaborate effectively with both technical and non-technical partners - Take ownership of problems and drive work forward independently while knowing when to involve others - Take pride in building readable, testable, maintainable software while making pragmatic technical trade-offs - Approach ambiguous or complex problems thoughtfully and use sound judgment to identify effective solutions - Contribute to a strong engineering culture through thoughtful code reviews, knowledge sharing, feedback, and continuous improvement - Proactively incorporates AI tools into day-to-day work to improve productivity and accelerate delivery ### Interview Overview Below you'll find an outline of the interview plan for this role. Please note that this is what we expect the process to look like; we may ask you for supplemental information or require an additional step before making a final decision. - 30 min interview with a member of our Talent Team - A 1 hour zoom interview with the hiring manager - Peer interviews with several team members - 30-minute Bar Raiser ### **Travel & Team Engagement Expectations** This role requires up to 10% travel for team collaboration, customer engagements, and company events. As part of our commitment to building strong connections across our fully distributed team, attendance at our annual company offsite (typically held in Mexico) is expected. ### **Salary** - The anticipated salary range for this role in Ireland is €95,000–€110,000 annually, depending on experience. - The anticipated salary for this role in Bulgaria is €6,000+ gross per month, depending on experience. ###### **Individual compensation decisions are based on a number of factors, including experience level, skillset, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company. We expect the majority of the candidates who are offered roles at our company to fall healthily throughout the range based on these factors. We recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description as posted. If that ends up being the case, the updated salary range will be communicated with you as a candidate.** ## **Why Muck Rack?** **Remote Work, Forever** - Fully distributed team with a permanent remote setup - Home office stipend, phone and internet reimbursement, coworking membership - Virtual and in-person team bonding (lunches, events, competitions) **Transparent & Fair Compensation** - Competitive geo-neutral pay in the U.S. - Annual reviews to ensure equity and market alignment - Standardized bonus or commission structure - 401(k) with employer contributions - Equity opportunities **Health & Wellness** - Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance for employees and dependents - 100% premium coverage for individuals on high-deductible plans - 24/7 Virtual Care and Employee Assistance Program - Employer-funded HSA contributions and other pre-tax benefits - Quarterly wellness stipend and free Headspace subscription **Time Off & Family Benefits** - 4+ weeks of PTO, plus paid sick and mental health days - 13 paid holidays with the option to swap for personal days - Up to 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave **Learning and Development** - Transparent pathways for internal mobility and promotion - Bi-annual performance reviews, team workshops, and leadership training - Unlimited access to Coursera and O’Reilly - 2 additional PTO days annually for learning and development **Inclusive, Customer-First Culture** - Commitment to equity and valuing diverse perspectives - Agile, founder-led company focused on collaboration and innovation - Trusted by 3,000+ companies worldwide *Note: Benefits and compensation reflect offerings for U.S.-based employees. Support is provided for employees in other locations, in compliance with local laws and regulations.* While we are a fully distributed team, we do have limitations on where we can hire and maintain a list of acceptable working locations based on job function. If we are unable to hire in your current location for the role for which you applied, you will be notified via email. While we enjoy many benefits as a permanently distributed and remote company, we cannot always support relocation or extended travel and have guidelines in place to ensure compliant work away from your designated permanent residence. #LI-Remote ###### Please note: For detailed information regarding our GDPR and/or CCPA compliance policies, including how we handle personal data and privacy rights, kindly refer to the email correspondence accompanying this application. ###### Muck Rack does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms or any other third parties. Any unsolicited resume sent to Muck Rack will be considered Muck Rack property, and Muck Rack will not pay a fee should it hire the subject of any unsolicited resume. ###### Muck Rack considers applicants for all positions on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs, and without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, alienage or citizenship status, ancestry, marital status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, veteran status, familial status, status as a victim of domestic violence, or any other status or characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. ###### Note to applicants/job seekers: We have recently been made aware of scams impersonating Muck Rack’s HR team. Please be cautious of these attempts to elicit banking or other financial or sensitive information. Muck Rack will never request financial information during the interview process, and follow ups for interviews or next steps will always come from an ‘@muckrack.com’ email address. If you are contacted by anyone from a different domain who claims to be from Muck Rack, please forward the communication to [legal@muckrack.com](mailto:legal@muckrack.com).