Software Engineering Lead
WFA Digital Insight
With demand for skilled software engineers growing rapidly, RELX's Software Engineering Lead role offers a unique chance to drive search-based innovation. As the job market shifts towards remote work, companies are looking for experts who can balance technical leadership with hands-on development. With a 25% increase in search technology investments in 2025, professionals with expertise in Lucene, Elasticsearch, or similar search engines are in high demand. Before applying, candidates should be aware that they will be working in a fast-paced environment, leading a team of engineers and collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders. A strong background in search technology and a proven track record of scaling search systems are essential for success in this role.
Job Description
About the Role
The Software Engineering Lead at RELX is a technical leadership role that requires expertise in search-based technology solutions. As a member of the Search Experience team, you will be responsible for guiding the design and delivery of scalable search and retrieval systems, leading a group of engineers, and serving as a key technical partner to product, platform, and research stakeholders. Your expertise in Lucene, Elasticsearch, or similar search engines will be essential in driving the technical direction of the team.The role involves balancing hands-on development with technical leadership, ensuring that the search platform evolves to meet the demands of diverse products and users. You will be working closely with senior engineers and principal-level leadership, with strong ownership of outcomes and day-to-day technical direction.
The Search Experience team is dedicated to unlocking the rich knowledge embedded within Elsevier's content through a rich data platform. The team empowers researchers, clinicians, and innovators worldwide to gain new insights, make informed decisions, and accelerate progress across research, healthcare, and life sciences.
What You Will Do
- Provide technical leadership for the Search Experience team, guiding design and implementation of shared search and retrieval systems
- Own the technical delivery of search platform initiatives, ensuring solutions meet requirements for scalability, relevance, reliability, and maintainability
- Lead the shared search platform, expanding content search and improving relevance through vector and lexical search techniques
- Design and develop scalable search services, data processing workflows, and microservices using technologies such as Elasticsearch, Spark, and Airflow
- Write clean, modular, and testable code in Python and/or Java, aligned with architecture guidelines and engineering standards
- Lead design discussions, code reviews, and architecture sessions to ensure software quality and maintainability
- Mentor and support engineers through pairing, code reviews, and technical coaching
- Proactively identify technical risks, dependencies, and bottlenecks, and drive them to resolution
- Contribute to cross-team alignment, ensuring the search platform integrates cleanly with broader product and AI ecosystems
What We Are Looking For
- Current expertise with Lucene, Elasticsearch, Solr, or similar search engines, with industry experience in semantic and lexical search
- Demonstrated experience acting as a technical lead on complex backend or search platform systems
- Proven track record building and scaling search systems in production environments
- Current and extensive development skills in Python and/or Java; Scala is a plus
- Solid backend engineering fundamentals: API design, data modelling, distributed systems, and performance tuning
- Proven ability to balance hands-on development with technical leadership and cross-functional coordination
- Experience with Agile or Kanban teams, collaborating across functions
- Experience building or integrating with graph-powered agentic AI and advanced search technologies
Nice to Have
- Experience with cloud-based search platforms, such as AWS CloudSearch or Google Cloud Search
- Knowledge of containerization using Docker and container orchestration using Kubernetes
- Familiarity with machine learning frameworks, such as TensorFlow or PyTorch
- Experience with data visualization tools, such as Tableau or Power BI
Benefits and Perks
- Competitive salary and benefits package
- Opportunity to work with a talented team of engineers and researchers
- Collaborative and dynamic work environment
- Flexible working hours and remote work options
- Professional development opportunities, including training and conference attendance
- Access to cutting-edge technologies and tools
- Recognition and reward for outstanding performance
- Comprehensive health insurance and retirement plan
- Generous paid time off and holiday schedule
How to Stand Out
- To stand out, highlight your experience with search engines like Lucene, Elasticsearch, or Solr, and provide examples of scaling search systems in production environments.
- Make sure to include a portfolio of your work, such as GitHub repositories or coding challenges, to demonstrate your coding skills.
- Be prepared to discuss your technical leadership experience, including how you have mentored and supported engineers in the past.
- Emphasize your ability to balance hands-on development with technical leadership and cross-functional coordination.
- Research the company's technology stack and be prepared to ask informed questions during the interview process.
- Don't be afraid to negotiate salary and benefits, but be sure to do your research and have a solid understanding of the market rate for the role.
- Pay attention to red flags, such as a lack of clear communication or unrealistic expectations, during the interview process.
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