Germany
CHAPTERS Group AG
ABOUT YOU SE & Co. KG
Senior Backend Engineer - Search & Discovery (all genders)
Germany
Hamburg, Germany
TypeScriptJavaNode.jsGo
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Company Description
ABOUT YOU is one of Europe's fastest-growing e-commerce companies. With locations in Hamburg and Berlin, we bring fashion and technology together. Our mission is to rethink online shopping and make it more personal. This requires more than just good ideas. It requires people who take initiative and question the status quo. We rely on flat hierarchies, direct communication, and pragmatic decisions. There are no long approval processes here. We work with dedication while also valuing enjoying our time together, whether it's during team lunches, after-work drinks, company events, or a quick coffee between meetings.
A place where you can be you.
We see it as our responsibility to create an environment where everyone can feel as welcome as they are.
Different backgrounds and perspectives make us stronger and shape our culture.
What we stand for internally, we also stand for as a brand: acceptance, inclusion, and a fairer approach to fashion.
Job Description
- Development of the Search Engine behind ABOUT YOU with a focus on Query Understanding, Entity Resolution, and semantic vector search in Node.js/TypeScript
- Combination of OpenSearch relevance, embedding similarity, and behavior-based re-ranking signals into unified and relevant search results
- Building and further developing search index pipelines for entities, synonyms, and k-NN product vectors that transfer data from BigQuery into OpenSearch
- Integration of LLMs and embedding models like Gemini and Vertex AI under strict latency requirements – including caching and fallback mechanisms
- Ensuring search quality through Golden Lists, Regression Suites, and continuous A/B experiments
- Co-designing the architecture together with our Tech Lead, and close collaboration with Data Analysts, Engineers, and Product Managers
Qualifications
- You enjoy getting to the bottom of the 'why' behind search results and deriving concrete technical improvements from them
- 5+ years of experience in developing scalable, low-latency Backend-APIs, ideally with Node.js/TypeScript – alternatively, you have experience with Java, Go, or Kotlin and can quickly learn new technologies
- In-depth practical experience with Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, especially with mappings, custom analyzers, percolators, and scoring functions – beyond just using query clients
- Strong algorithmic understanding for ranked data, such as merging and deduplicating results, combining scores, and balancing latency and result quality
- You are interested in combining Backend engineering and Machine Learning, and in providing model scores, embeddings, or LLM features in production systems
- Very good communication in English, as well as a pragmatic and data-oriented approach with a strong curiosity for new challenges
Nice to Have
- Basic knowledge in Information Retrieval and NLP, for example, tokenization, multilingual search, or frameworks for evaluating search relevance
- Experience with vector search, such as with k-NN/HNSW indices and SigLIP embeddings, as well as optimizing the balance between recall and latency
- Practical knowledge in LLM engineering, for example, with prompt caching, defining timeout budgets, or Datadog LLM observability
- Familiarity with BigQuery, dbt, or Dagster and their respective data pipelines
Additional Information
Your benefits at a glance: Visit our benefits page.
Simply apply online via our career page – we will get back to you with feedback as soon as possible!
Compensation: EUR 70000 - EUR 85000 - annually
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