Software Development Engineer II, Search & Relevance

Mapbox is the leading real-time location platform for a new generation of location-aware businesses. Mapbox is the only platform that equips organizations with the full set of tools to power the navigation of people, packages, and vehicles everywhere. More than 3.5 million registered developers have chosen Mapbox because of the platform’s flexibility, security and privacy compliance. Organizations use Mapbox applications, data, SDKs and APIs to create customized and immersive experiences that delight their customers. 

What We Do

POI Search & Relevance team (aka Search Box Engineering) is responsible for building the best general, location-based search engine that empowers the drivers in vehicles, dashers in package delivery and many other people with different use cases that require an intelligent Maps search solution to find places and points of interest as quickly and with fewer keystrokes as possible. We do this by developing groundbreaking algorithms and features, applying the latest cutting edge technologies, and creating cost efficient, scalable solutions that can keep up with the ever changing dynamics of the world in near real-time fashion.

What You'll Do

 POI Search & Relevance team has direct ownership of Mapbox’s search engine (Search Box) including Query Understanding, POI recall and ranking, and overall ranking and whole page relevancy. We work very closely with our partners, Search Data, Search Evaluation and Search API teams among others, to ensure that we provide the best solution for our customers at all times through cross-team collaboration and open communication.

We have a modern development process - analyzing our initial algorithms, implementing and experimenting as we go, adjusting and optimizing our solutions to ultimately provide the best user experience. We support a production system and, therefore, support outside of standard business hours may occasionally be required to assist with various team and system needs such as pager support for periodic on-call duties, video calls, or other project requirements.

Whatever the use case may be, our customers rely on us to provide the most relevant, location aware suggestions for any given query so, as an algorithm/search engineer on POI Search & Relevance team, your responsibilities may include (but are not limited to):

• Designing and implementing search retrieval algorithms across multiple search engines

• Making existing algorithms more efficient and/or highly performant

• Writing technical design documents and participating in design and code reviews

• Owning the efficiency and accuracy of your designs, as well as being responsible for overseeing your own work through the development and implementation lifecycle, ultimately delivering excellent end results

• Collaborating with other engineers, PMs and teams internationally and cross functionally to deliver a high quality experience to our customers

• Promoting a culture of operational excellence by meticulously testing and monitoring our systems and codes, and being available/on-call to support the health of our services

What We Believe are Important Traits for This Role

• Strong understanding of search techniques (such as information retrieval) and data structure

• Practical experience in making an algorithm perform efficiently upon implementation

• Ability to write sophisticated, highly performant, and reliable solutions

• Excellent problem solving skills and analytical skills, valuing a scientific approach by using experimentation and critical thinking to drive and validate high quality solutions

• Fluent communication in English with a sense for listening to others as well as getting your message across concisely

• Experience with modern programming languages (JAVA, C++, Rust, Typescript)

• Proficiency in implementing monitoring instrumentation, operational diagnostics, resolving customer issues, and continuous product improvement

Nice To Have Traits For This Role

• Experience with maps, routing, navigation

• Experience with NLP/ML/Generative AI

• Experience with search engines such as ElasticSearch, Solr, Lucene

• Experience with solving challenging search problems

• Experience with big data and scale, data mining and science

What We Value

In addition to our core values, which are not unique to this position and are necessary for Mapbox leaders:

• We value high-performing creative individuals who dig into problems and opportunities.

• We believe in individuals being their whole selves at work. We commit to this through supportive health care, parental leave, flexibility for the things that come up in life, and innovating on how we think about supporting our people.

• We emphasize an environment of teaching and learning to equip employees with the tools needed to be successful in their function and the company.

• We strongly believe in the value of growing a diverse team and encourage people of all backgrounds, genders, ethnicities, abilities, and sexual orientations to apply.

Our annual base compensation for this role ranges from $151,725 - $205,275 for most US locations and 5% to 10% higher for US locations with a higher cost of labor. Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. Please discuss your specific work location with your recruiter for more information.

By applying for this position, you acknowledge that you agree to the Mapbox Privacy Policy which is linked here.

Mapbox is an EEO Employer - Minority/Female/Veteran/Disabled/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity.

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