Senior Search Performance Engineer

Why this role?

Join the Compass team to optimize and scale our Search Applications and infrastructure, ensuring users receive fast, reliable, and intelligent search experiences. You'll work at the intersection of search technology and performance engineering, revolutionizing how users interact with AI‑powered search through continuous optimization, benchmarking, and infrastructure enhancements. Your work will directly enhance document understanding capabilities and support the development of new tool surfaces designed for agentic users.

• Implement performance monitoring and optimization strategies for Compass search services and the integration with North
• Develop and maintain benchmarking frameworks to evaluate search model performance and infrastructure efficiency
• Collaborate with modeling teams to optimize search models for faster response times and reduced resource consumption
• Work on scaling the search services while maintaining high availability and low latency
• Partner with product teams to translate performance requirements into technical implementations
• Develop and optimize new tool surfaces for agentic search experiences

• You have proficiency in Python and backend search technologies (Open Search, Elastic Search, Weaviate, FastAPI)
• You possess experience with data or evaluation pipelines and performance benchmarking
• You have experience profiling applications hosted on a mix of CPU, GPU, and autoscaled compute nodes
• You can communicate technical performance metrics effectively to cross‑functional teams
• You have 4+ years of experience contributing to production environments

• Experience with Kubernetes, Helm, and infrastructure deployment
• Familiarity with GPU‑based model inference optimization (ONNX, Triton, vLLM)
• History working in the search and discovery domain

• An open and inclusive culture and work environment
• Work closely with a team on the cutting edge of AI research
• A weekly lunch stipend of $75/£75 or equivalent in your local currency for lunch.
• Full health and dental benefits, including a separate budget for mental health.
• RRSP matching, 401K, Pension Scheme.
• 100% Parental Leave top‑up for up to 6 months, for either parent.
• Annual enrichment benefits:
  • Arts & culture, fitness/wellness, quality time, and a workspace improvement credit.
  • Education & learning stipend for conferences, courses, and coaching.
• Remote‑flexible, offices in Toronto, New York, San Francisco, London and Paris, as well as a co‑working stipend
• 6 weeks of paid vacation (30 working days!)
• Budget for traveling to other offices if you are remote, plus an annual company off‑site.

We value and celebrate diversity and strive to create an inclusive work environment for all. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to providing equal opportunities. Should you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, please submit an Accommodations Request Form, and we will work together to meet your needs.

We may use AI‑enabled tools to screen and assess applicants against the criteria for this position. This helps our recruiters identify potentially qualified candidates, but it doesn't limit the applications our recruiters may review or consider.