Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure
Pinecone · Location not specified · Remote
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Pinecone
About Pinecone Pinecone is the knowledge infrastructure for AI at scale. Its leading vector database and knowledge engine, Pinecone Nexus, power accurate, performant AI applications for more than 9,000 customers and 800,000 developers worldwide. Pinecone's mission is to make AI knowledgeable. Pinecone is based in New York and raised $138M in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, ICONIQ, Menlo Ventures, and Wing Venture Capital.
Gig description
About Pinecone Pinecone is the knowledge infrastructure for AI at scale. Its leading vector database and knowledge engine, Pinecone Nexus, power accurate, performant AI applications for more than 9,000 customers and 800,000 developers worldwide. Pinecone's mission is to make AI knowledgeable. 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 are hiring a senior/staff software engineer to help design and build core components of our next-generation knowledge retrieval system built for the AI era – search and retrieval infrastructure that powers high-quality, scalable, and enterprise-grade agentic systems. You’ll build the framework that allows our customers to connect knowledge–synthesized from structured and unstructured data–to modern LLM-powered applications, leveraging the world’s best-in-class vector DB supporting semantic search and hybrid retrieval. This role is ideal for someone who loves backend system architecture, distributed systems, and applied AI infrastructure. It is a high impact role with significant ownership across architecture, performance, and system reliability. Responsibilities: - Design and build scalable platform components leveraging advanced retrieval via query planning, semantic and hybrid search, metadata-aware search, and LLM generation - Design and build optimized indexing pipelines for structured and unstructured data - Build backend services for semantic and hybrid retrieval, knowledge graph construction, and retrieval orchestration - Improve retrieval quality through evaluation and observability frameworks - Design APIs for internal and external user and agentic consumers - Optimize latency, throughput and cost across large-scale inference and retrieval workloads - Drive technical direction for reliability and security What You’ll Bring to the Table: To thrive in this role, you don't need to check every single box, but you should be deeply passionate about how to turn data into knowledge. Systems Expertise - Architectural Depth: You have a proven track record (typically 6+ years) of shipping production-grade backends for large-scale systems. You don’t just write code; you design for high throughput, low latency, and long-term maintainability. - Data Engineering Savvy: You’re comfortable building high-throughput indexing pipelines that handle both the messy world of unstructured data and the rigid world of structured schemas. AI & Retrieval - Retrieval Intuition: You understand that "search" is more than just a keyword match. You have direct experience (or deep theoretical knowledge) in semantic search, vector databases, hybrid retrieval strategies, or with traditional search engines like Elastic or OpenSearch. - RAG & Orchestration: You understand the nuances of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) patterns, from embedding pipelines and hybrid search techniques to how query planning and metadata filtering can make or break an LLM's performance. Technical - Language Fluency: You are an expert in at least one major language like Go, Rust, C++, Java, or Python. - Infrastructure: Familiarity and experience with modern infrastructure tools, such as Kubernetes, cloud-native architectures, and observability frameworks, as well as infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform or Pulumi. Ownership & Impact - Product Thinking: You don't just build to spec; you build for the user. You can design clean, intuitive APIs that both human developers and autonomous agents will love. - Ambiguity Navigator: You’re comfortable in a high-growth environment. You prefer "owning a problem" over "executing a ticket. " Bonus Points - Experience building multi-tenant SaaS platforms. - Experience with retrieval evaluation frameworks—knowing how to actually measure "good" search results. - Experience with query planning or agentic reasoning loops (e. g. , teaching a system how to break down a complex prompt into multiple specific steps). Perks & Benefits: - Comprehensive health coverage including medical, dental, vision, and mental health resources - 401(k) Plan - Equity award - Flexible time off - Paid parental leave - Annual Company Retreat - WFH Equipment Stipend 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.
Requirements to meet
Disclaimer
Suggestions only — review each course yourself to judge whether it meets the role's requirements. Completing a course doesn't guarantee proficiency or that you'll qualify; hiring standards vary by employer.
Skills required
RAG (required)
GapCourses that may help you meet this requirement:
Building and Evaluating Advanced RAG Applications
DeepLearning.AI · intermediate · Free
This intermediate course directly targets RAG, the specific skill gap identified for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role.
Design and implement RAG with SQL
Microsoft Learn · intermediate · Free · 1.5h
This intermediate course directly covers RAG, the skill gap identified for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role, through hands-on implementation.
Implement advanced RAG pipelines with Azure AI Search and Microsoft Foundry
Microsoft Learn · advanced · Free · 41m
This advanced course directly targets the RAG skill gap identified for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role by covering implementation of advanced RAG pipelines.
Agentic Workflows (required)
GapCourses that may help you meet this requirement:
Understand features of Copilot Studio agents
Microsoft Learn · beginner · Free · 54m
This beginner course on Copilot Studio agents is recommended to help build foundational knowledge for the Agentic Workflows skill gap identified for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role.
Maximize the Cost Efficiency of AI Agents on Azure
Microsoft Learn · beginner · Free · 5h
This course is recommended to address the Agentic Workflows skill gap for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role, as its title directly focuses on optimizing AI agents, which aligns with the agentic workflows domain.
Design ALM process for AI-powered business solutions
Microsoft Learn · intermediate · Free · 46m
This intermediate course is recommended to help close the Agentic Workflows skill gap for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role, though no specific matched keywords were provided to detail its coverage.
Python (required)
GapCourses that may help you meet this requirement:
Data Analysis with Python
freeCodeCamp · beginner · Free
This beginner-level course directly builds Python skills, addressing the Python gap required for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role.
Pandas
Kaggle Learn · beginner · Free
This beginner Pandas course helps build foundational Python skills relevant to the Python skill gap identified for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role.
CS50's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python
CS50 · intermediate · Free
This course is recommended because it directly covers Python, addressing the Python skill gap required for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role.
Kubernetes (required)
GapCourses that may help you meet this requirement:
Monitor hybrid virtual machines, containers, and network resources
Microsoft Learn · beginner · Free · 1.5h
This beginner course is recommended to help build foundational knowledge of container and network monitoring relevant to Kubernetes skills needed for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer role.
Introduction to project FarmVibes.AI
Microsoft Learn · beginner · Free · 16m
This course has no confirmed coverage of Kubernetes or related keywords, so it does not clearly address the Kubernetes skill gap for this role.
Deploy a cloud-native .NET microservice automatically with GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines
Microsoft Learn · intermediate · Free · 34m · ★ 4.8
This course is recommended to address the Kubernetes skill gap for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer role, as it directly covers kubernetes through its cloud-native deployment content.
Data Engineering (required)
GapCourses that may help you meet this requirement:
Explore data roles and services
Microsoft Learn · beginner · Free · 22m · ★ 4.8
This course directly covers Data Engineering, which appears as a requirement in the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure posting at a beginner level and can be completed in approximately 0 hours.
Explore core data concepts
Microsoft Learn · beginner · Free · 35m · ★ 4.8
This beginner course covers core data concepts, helping address the Data Engineering skill gap identified for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role.
Explore fundamentals of large-scale analytics
Microsoft Learn · beginner · Free · 51m · ★ 4.8
This beginner course covers data fundamentals, directly addressing the Data Engineering skill gap identified for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role.
Vector Databases (required)
GapCourses that may help you meet this requirement:
Implement vector search with Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Microsoft Learn · intermediate · Free · 1.5h
This intermediate course covers vector search implementation, directly addressing the Vector Databases skill gap needed for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role.
Optimize vector search in Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Microsoft Learn · intermediate · Free · 2h
This intermediate course directly addresses the Vector Databases skill gap by teaching vector optimization techniques in Azure Database for PostgreSQL, relevant to the Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role.
Large Language Models (required)
GapCourses that may help you meet this requirement:
Explore data roles and services
Microsoft Learn · beginner · Free · 22m · ★ 4.8
This course covers Large Language Models, which appears as a requirement in the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure posting at a beginner level and can be completed in approximately 0 hours.
Leverage AI tools and resources for your business
Microsoft Learn · beginner · Free · 42m · ★ 4.8
This course covers Large Language Models, which appears as a requirement in the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure posting at a beginner level and can be completed in approximately 1 hours.
Use AI for everyday tasks
Microsoft Learn · beginner · Free · 43m
This beginner course is recommended to help build foundational familiarity with Large Language Models, addressing a skill gap relevant to the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure role.
Java (required)
GapCourse that may help you meet this requirement:
Monitoring Java applications on Azure
Microsoft Learn · intermediate · Free · 1h · ★ 4.8
This intermediate course directly addresses the Java skill gap for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer role by focusing on Java, providing targeted, practical knowledge in just 1 hour.
C++ (required)
GapRust (required)
GapTerraform (required)
GapCourse that may help you meet this requirement:
Create Azure Resources by using Azure Resource Manager templates
Microsoft Learn · advanced · Free · 29m · ★ 4.8
This course covers Terraform, which appears as a requirement in the Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure posting at an advanced level and can be completed in approximately 0 hours.
Distributed Systems (required)
Gap