{"id":1323646,"url":"https://alion.io/job/buywander-senior-software-engineer-search-personalization","title":"Senior Software Engineer (Search & Personalization)","company":{"id":3792376,"name":"BuyWander","domain":"buywander.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/buywander","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Paylocity","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":9,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Seattle, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":103000,"max_usd":188000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":3030},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"A/B Testing","optional":false},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Claude","optional":false},{"name":"Claude Code","optional":false},{"name":"Copilot","optional":false},{"name":"Cursor","optional":false},{"name":"Hybrid Search","optional":false},{"name":"Jira","optional":false},{"name":"Pinecone","optional":false},{"name":"Vue.js","optional":false},{"name":"Algolia","optional":true},{"name":"C#","optional":true},{"name":"ElasticSearch","optional":true},{"name":"FastAPI","optional":true},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true},{"name":"OpenSearch","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true},{"name":"Vercel","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-04-28T18:53:45Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-27","last_verified_at":"2026-10-13T05:31:13Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":168,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":168},"description":"Description\nSenior Software Engineer (Search & Personalization)\nLocation: Seattle, WA Type: Full-Time | Engineering\nABOUT BUYWANDER\nBuyWander is rebuilding the $850B retail returns industry. We take chaotic truckloads of returned goods and transform them into a fast, fun, treasure-hunt shopping experience powered by AI, real-time auctions, and local pickup.\nWe’re not just building a marketplace. We’re building a daily habit.\nTHE ROLE\nWe are looking for a highly product-minded Senior Software Engineer to own our Search and Personalization experience.\nWith the rapid advancement of AI coding agents (like Claude Code and Cursor), the way we build across the stack has completely changed. We aren't hiring you to spend your days writing boilerplate UI components. We are hiring you for your architectural brain and product sense.\nYour mandate is to build the discovery engine that keeps our users addicted to the \"treasure hunt.\" You will partner with our Data & AI team to take raw recommendation models and turn them into lightning-fast, highly personalized consumer experiences.\nWHAT YOU’LL OWN\n1. The Discovery & Personalization Engine\nDesign and implement the architecture for our \"For You\" feeds.\nBlend rules-based logic with ML-driven recommendations to ensure the right weird, unique, or high-value item hits the exact right bidder at the right time.\n2. Search Optimization\nOwn our core search infrastructure (Elastic Cloud / Pinecone).\nImplement hybrid search (keyword + vector), tune ranking weights, and build typo-tolerance and synonym matching so our buyers always find what they are looking for.\n3. Measuring Success & Experimentation\nYou don't just ship features; you measure them. You will design the A/B testing framework for our search ranking changes.\nTrack click-through rates (CTR), bid velocity, and conversion metrics to definitively prove your search tweaks are making the company money.\n4. AI-Assisted Product Development\nUse modern AI coding tools to rapidly wire your backend search APIs into our Vue/Nuxt frontend.\nFocus your deep thinking on system design, database queries, and user flows, while leveraging AI agents to accelerate UI execution.\nWHY THIS ROLE IS DIFFERENT\nAt most companies, you are handed a Jira ticket and told exactly what to build. Here, you are handed a business problem: \"Our bidders are having trouble finding niche electronics in our chaotic inventory-fix it.\"\nYou will have the autonomy to design the search logic, test the algorithms, and ship the product experience that solves that problem. If you love building systems that directly drive user addiction and marketplace revenue, let's talk.\nBenefits\nCompetitive Salary and Performance-based Bonuses \nMeaningful equity in a company attacking a massive market, for a brand that can become nationally recognized\nHealth, Vision & Dental Insurance \nUnlimited PTO \nAnnual Company Offsites \n401K\nRequirements\nWHAT YOU BRING\n The Tech Stack: Deep backend proficiency (we use C#/Python/FastAPI) and a solid understanding of modern frontend frameworks (we use Vue/Nuxt/Vercel).\n Search Expertise: Proven experience tuning search engines (Elasticsearch, Algolia, or OpenSearch) and familiarity with modern Vector databases (Pinecone).\nProduct Sense: You think in terms of user psychology and metrics. You understand concepts like collaborative filtering, session-based recommendations, and ranking algorithms.\n The Modern Workflow: You are highly proficient in using AI developer tools (Copilot, Cursor, Claude) to multiply your output.\nBuyWander is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We make employment decisions based on qualifications, skills, merit, and business needs. We believe a range of skills, perspectives, and experiences strengthens our team and supports better outcomes for our employees and customers.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3813,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Dental insurance","Equity","Unlimited PTO"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Commerce","Auctions"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-27T00:27:45Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":7,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.25,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":168,"expected_fill_days":31,"reasons":["conf:25","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/buywander-senior-software-engineer-search-personalization","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/buywander-senior-software-engineer-search-personalization.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-14T10:31:32Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":12351,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":3792376},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=3792376"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fbuywander-senior-software-engineer-search-personalization"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fbuywander-senior-software-engineer-search-personalization"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fbuywander-senior-software-engineer-search-personalization"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/buywander-senior-software-engineer-search-personalization\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fbuywander-senior-software-engineer-search-personalization"}]}