MongoDB’s mission is to empower innovators to create, transform, and disrupt industries by unleashing the power of software and data. We enable organizations of all sizes to easily build, scale, and run modern applications by helping them modernize legacy workloads, embrace innovation, and unleash AI. Our industry-leading developer data platform, MongoDB Atlas, is the only globally distributed, multi-cloud database and is available in more than 115 regions across AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Atlas allows customers to build and run applications anywhere—on premises, or across cloud providers. With offices worldwide and over 175,000 new developers signing up to use MongoDB every month, it’s no wonder that leading organizations, like Samsung and Toyota, trust MongoDB to build next-generation, AI-powered applications.
Role OverviewThe Atlas Search Systems team is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer to drive the next generation of search and retrieval systems at MongoDB.
This role focuses on designing, building, and scaling distributed systems that power Atlas Search — including full-text search, vector search using Voyage.ai models, hybrid retrieval techniques, indexing pipelines, and query execution engines.
The Senior Staff Engineer will partner with engineers across Atlas, Search, and Voyage.ai to deliver highly available, scalable, and cost-efficient search capabilities directly integrated into MongoDB Atlas.
Responsibilities- Lead architecture and system design for core Atlas Search components (indexing, retrieval, ranking, and vector search)
- Define and drive cross-team technical initiatives focused on scaling, availability, performance, and operational simplicity
- Build high-performance, cloud-native distributed services in production environments
- Prototype and deliver systems that integrate emerging retrieval technologies, including hybrid BM25 + dense vector search
- Collaborate closely with engineers, product managers, and leadership across Atlas, Search, and Voyage.ai
- Mentor senior and staff engineers, providing technical leadership and raising the overall engineering bar
- 10+ years of experience designing and building distributed systems at scale
- Strong hands-on experience with search technologies (Lucene, inverted indexes, ranking algorithms, dense retrieval)
- Expertise in Java or C++ (Scala, Go, or Rust experience a plus)
- Deep understanding of distributed systems fundamentals (consistency, sharding, replication, consensus protocols)
- Experience operating cloud-native services in AWS, Azure, or GCP environments
- Proven ability to drive complex technical projects across multiple teams
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for technical design reviews and cross-team collaboration
- Deep experience working with Lucene internals or customizing search engines
- Knowledge of approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) algorithms (e.g., HNSW, Faiss)
- Familiarity with Kubernetes-based service deployments
- Experience building developer-facing APIs for search or retrieval workloads
To drive the personal growth and business impact of our employees, we’re committed to developing a supportive and enriching culture for everyone. From employee affinity groups, to fertility assistance and a generous parental leave policy, we value our employees’ wellbeing and want to support them along every step of their professional and personal journeys. Learn more about what it’s like to work at MongoDB, and help us make an impact on the world!
MongoDB is committed to providing any necessary accommodations for individuals with disabilities within our application and interview process. To request an accommodation due to a disability, please inform your recruiter.
MongoDB, Inc. provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and makes all hiring decisions without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
Req ID: 1263115826
MongoDB’s base salary range for this role is posted below. Compensation at the time of offer is unique to each candidate and based on a variety of factors such as skill set, experience, qualifications, and work location. Salary is one part of MongoDB’s total compensation and benefits package. Other benefits for eligible employees may include: equity, participation in the employee stock purchase program, flexible paid time off, 20 weeks fully-paid gender-neutral parental leave, fertility and adoption assistance, 401(k) plan, mental health counseling, access to transgender-inclusive health insurance coverage, and health benefits offerings. Please note, the base salary range listed below and the benefits in this paragraph are only applicable to U.S.-based candidates.
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