Backend Engineer, Search jobs in United States
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Consensus · 18 hours ago

Backend Engineer, Search

positionSan Francisco Bay Area
timeFull-time
remoteHybrid
seniorityMid, Senior Level
money$170K/yr - $240K/yr
date4+ years exp

Consensus is building the OS for research, providing an academic search engine that assists millions in analyzing scientific papers. The Backend Engineer will design, build, and maintain the core search stack, focusing on product features, data pipelines, and ML model productionization.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)Machine LearningSearch EngineSoftwareSubscription ServiceVertical Search
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Growth Opportunities
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H1B Sponsor Likelynote
Hiring Manager
Christian Salem
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Responsibilities

Ship end-to-end improvements like search features, agentic research flows, data pipelines, personalization/recommendations, internal tools, and new products
Help maintain and improve a large, complex search and data stack powering core Consensus functionality
Identify issues, fix bugs, and iterate quickly in response to user feedback, data, and changing product/business priorities
Partner closely with ML and product teams to productionize new ranking and recommendation models and features

Qualification

PythonBackend engineeringDistributed data processingInfrastructureSite reliabilityLog analysisDebugging complex systemsInterest in scienceInterest in researchInterest in educationPrevious search experience

Required

4+ years of full-stack engineering experience
Track record of high-velocity delivery and ownership with minimal direction
Strong Python and backend engineering skills
Experience with distributed data processing (Databricks/Spark or similar)
Previous experience with infrastructure, site reliability, SRE, log analysis, and debugging complex systems
Interest in the product and mission: science, research, education

Preferred

Previous search experience is a bonus but not required for the role

Benefits

Competitive Series A equity

Company

Consensus

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Consensus is a search engine that uses AI to find answers in scientific research.
dateFounded in 2021
location
San Francisco, California, USA
people-size2-10 employees
web-link
https://consensus.app

H1B Sponsorship

Consensus has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (1)

Funding

Current Stage
Early Stage
Total Funding
$15.7M
Key Investors
Union Square VenturesAlumni VenturesDraper Associates
2024-07-23Series A· $11.5M
2023-12-22Seed
2023-04-21Seed· $3M

Leadership Team

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Eric Olson
Co-Founder & CEO
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Christian Salem
Co-Founder and CPO
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Recent News

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2025-10-11
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Alumni Ventures Portfolio
2024-02-08
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Consensus Raises $3M, Partners with OpenAI to Revolutionize Scientific Web Search
2023-04-24
Company data provided by crunchbase