{"id":783867,"url":"https://alion.io/job/shifter-software-engineer-vespa-core-java","title":"Software Engineer, Vespa Core (Java)","company":{"id":38666,"name":"Shifter","domain":"shifter.no","url":"https://alion.io/company/shifter","size_band":"1-10","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"BambooHR","truth_index":null},"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":["Trondheim, Norway"],"countries":["NO"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Apache HTTP Server","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"GitHub","optional":false},{"name":"gRPC","optional":false},{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Perplexity","optional":false},{"name":"Vespa","optional":false},{"name":"Buildkite","optional":true},{"name":"Docker","optional":true},{"name":"GitHub Actions","optional":true},{"name":"Grafana","optional":true},{"name":"Jira","optional":true},{"name":"JUnit","optional":true},{"name":"Maven","optional":true},{"name":"Podman","optional":true},{"name":"Slack","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-09T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-09","last_verified_at":"2026-11-07T01:09:36Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":59,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":59},"description":"Does it sound interesting to work on an open source platform managing the data and real-time search and inference for some of the largest companies in the world? Would you thrive on building the core of a high-performance, open-source AI search engine - the Java runtime, container, and APIs that thousands of applications run on? If so, we want you to join our team at Vespa.ai as a Software Engineer, Vespa Core (Java)!\nAbout Vespa.ai:\nVespa.ai is a team of passionate builders. We maintain and develop the Apache 2.0 licensed open-source AI search platform Vespa.\nVespa is a fully featured search engine and vector database. It supports vector search (ANN), lexical search, and structured data search, all in a single query. Integrated machine-learning model inference enables the application of AI to make sense of data in real time. Together with Vespa's proven scalability and high availability, this empowers to create production-ready search applications at any scale and with any combination of features. Our users and customers are #1 in e-commerce, content, and financial services globally, and are powering companies such as Perplexity, Spotify, Yahoo, Wix, and many more.\nIn addition to our open-source platform, Vespa.ai develops and runs Vespa Cloud, a robust SaaS offering that allows businesses to harness the power of our technology with ease.\nAt Vespa.ai, we are extremely focused on automating everything we do to grow fast and maintain high quality. In all roles, we scale through technology, not simply by adding larger teams. We take pride in being small, nimble, and the most productive.\nPosition overview\nVespa is developed in the open on GitHub, tested continuously, and released daily. The Java side of the platform includes the jdisc application container that hosts all query and document processing, the configuration system that keeps thousands of nodes consistent, and the APIs and SDKs our users build on. Changes here ship to every Vespa deployment in the world.\nWe are seeking an experienced Java engineer to develop and improve these core components. You will design and implement features in the Vespa platform, work on performance and robustness of the container and its runtime, and collaborate closely with the engineers working on the C++ search and content engines. This is a hands-on, senior individual contributor role in a team where code quality, performance and correctness matter.\nAt our Trondheim office, we work office-first: you will be based on-site most of the time, with the flexibility to work from home/remotely when needed, as agreed with your manager.\nResponsibilities\nDesign, implement and maintain Java components in the open-source Vespa platform, in particular the jdisc application container and its runtime.\nImprove performance, resource efficiency and robustness of the container layer, including JVM tuning and profiling.\nDevelop and evolve the public APIs, configuration model and component framework used by Vespa applications.\nCollaborate with the engineers working on the C++ engine and on Vespa Cloud on features spanning the whole stack.\nReview code, write tests and documentation, and engage with the open-source community on issues and contributions.\nInvestigate and resolve complex production issues reported by users and customers.\nQualifications\n5+ years of professional Java development experience.\nDeep knowledge of the Java language, the JVM, concurrency and memory management.\nExperience building and operating server-side systems with high performance and availability requirements.\nSolid understanding of the network protocols and standards that server-side Java systems build on, such as HTTP/2, TLS and gRPC.\nGood understanding of distributed systems concepts.\nGood understanding of sound software engineering principles and practices.\nExcellent problem-solving and analytical skills.\nAbility to work independently and as part of a team.\nFluent written and spoken English. Norwegian is not required.\nDesired Skills\nExperience with JVM profiling and performance tuning (JFR, async-profiler, etc.).\nFamiliarity with search engines, databases or other data-intensive and large-scale distributed systems.\nExperience with Maven-based build systems and large monorepos.\nSome of Our Tools and Services\nJava (current LTS), Maven, JUnit\nGitHub Enterprise Cloud (including GitHub Actions), Buildkite\nPodman/Docker; daily releases to DockerHub\nGrafana, Jira Cloud, Slack\nWhy Join Us:\nOpportunities for professional growth and development as part of one of Europe's most exciting start-ups!\nBe part of a cutting-edge team working on innovative search and recommendation technology.\nWork on a team where we don't believe in silos between engineers; there aren't \"developers\", \"ops people\", and \"sysadmins\". We're all engineers solving problems the smart way together!\nCompetitive salary and benefits.\nRelocating to Norway? We'll help you settle in, and offer voluntary Norwegian language training.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4969,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"Norwegian","level":"All levels","optional":false},{"language":"English","level":"All levels","optional":false}]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["IT News & Tech Media"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-12T01:13:16Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":27,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.604,"p_room":0.45,"age_days":58,"expected_fill_days":31,"reasons":["conf:2","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-11-06T05:58:05Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/shifter-software-engineer-vespa-core-java","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/shifter-software-engineer-vespa-core-java.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-07T03:04:05Z","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":7372,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-08T00:00:00Z"}},"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":38666},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=38666"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fshifter-software-engineer-vespa-core-java"},{"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%2Fshifter-software-engineer-vespa-core-java"},{"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%2Fshifter-software-engineer-vespa-core-java"},{"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/shifter-software-engineer-vespa-core-java\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fshifter-software-engineer-vespa-core-java"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":783867}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"shifter.no","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":783867},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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