Relevance Engineer – Enterprise Search & AI Hybrid

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

This position is hybrid.

Join Cisco’s Enterprise Search team, responsible for powering intelligent knowledge discovery across the company. Our mission is to deliver highly relevant, scalable, and AI-enhanced search experiences that help employees and customers quickly find the information they need. We combine deep expertise in search infrastructure, ranking science, and distributed systems with modern Generative AI capabilities to transform traditional information retrieval into intelligent, context‑aware discovery.

We are a collaborative team of search engineers, data scientists, and AI practitioners who value experimentation, measurable impact, and technical excellence. What makes this team exciting is the opportunity to shape the future of enterprise search by integrating traditional information retrieval with cutting‑edge AI and Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) and agentic frameworks at scale.

• Architect and optimize hybrid retrieval systems leveraging Elasticsearch, semantic embeddings, and re‑ranking models to improve top‑k relevance, latency, and downstream Generative AI response quality.
• Develop and tune relevance models using query analytics, behavioral signals, and experimentation frameworks to improve search outcomes.
• Integrate Generative AI capabilities with traditional information retrieval systems to create intelligent, context‑aware search experiences.
• Implement and optimize Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines that combine structured and unstructured enterprise data sources.
• Partner with AI engineers, platform teams, and product stakeholders to define measurable improvements in search quality and user satisfaction.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Retrieval, Data Science, or related field with 5+ years of experience in search engineering or relevance optimization.
• 3+ years of hands‑on experience designing and operating Elasticsearch in production environments.
• Demonstrated experience tuning search relevance (ranking, scoring models, analyzers, tokenization, synonyms, boosting).
• Experience working with large‑scale structured and unstructured data sets.
• Proficiency in Python, Java, or similar programming language for search and data processing applications.

• Experience integrating Generative AI or LLM‑based systems with search platforms.
• Familiarity with Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) frameworks and vector search techniques.
• Experience with hybrid search (keyword + vector search) and embedding‑based retrieval systems.
• Knowledge of evaluation metrics such as NDCG, MRR, precision/recall, and A/B testing for search optimization.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate search relevance improvements into business impact.

At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.

Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.

We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.

The starting salary range posted for this position is $ to $ and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation, equity, or benefits.

Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job‑related skillset, experience, qualifications,…