Senior Software Engineer, Vector Index Research

About Zilliz

Zilliz is building the next generation of data infrastructure for AI. Founded in 2017 by the creators of Milvus, one of the world's most popular open-source vector databases, we help developers and enterprises build, deploy, and scale AI-powered applications, from semantic search and RAG to emerging agentic AI workloads. 

Backed by $113 million in funding from leading global investors, Zilliz has established a strong presence in the AI infrastructure market. Milvus has earned over 46,000 GitHub stars, and our technology has reached more than 10,000 enterprise users worldwide. Companies including OpenEvidence, Exa, and Filevine rely on Zilliz Cloud to power their AI applications.

Building on our roots in vector database technology, we're expanding Zilliz Cloud into a broader AI data platform with Zilliz Vector Lakebase. As AI continues to reshape how applications are built and how data is used, we're focused on making the underlying infrastructure more powerful, scalable, and accessible to organizations worldwide.

The Vector Index team focuses on building the core vector retrieval capabilities behind Milvus, Zilliz Cloud, and Vector Lakebase. We work on making similarity search over massive embedding datasets faster, more accurate, and more cost-efficient, while continuously advancing ANN algorithms, index structures, quantization, compression, recall optimization, CPU/GPU acceleration, and high-performance retrieval frameworks.

This role sits at the intersection of research and engineering. You will read papers, evaluate new algorithms, build prototypes, and turn promising ideas into production-grade vector indexing and retrieval systems. We are looking for engineers who enjoy research, but also have strong engineering fundamentals, performance optimization skills, and engineering taste.

What you'll do:

Research, evaluate, and implement new vector indexing and retrieval algorithms for Milvus, Zilliz Cloud, and Vector Lakebase
Read papers and track emerging work in vector search, ANN algorithms, index structures, quantization, compression, reranking, GPU acceleration, and AI retrieval systems
Build high-performance vector indexing components, including index building, query paths, vector preprocessing, quantization, compression, memory layout, and CPU/GPU acceleration
Optimize vector retrieval performance across latency, throughput, recall, memory usage, index build time, and cost efficiency
Design benchmarks and evaluation frameworks to compare algorithms and implementations under real data scale, real query patterns, and real AI workloads
Debug and solve complex performance issues across algorithm implementation, CPU/GPU execution, SIMD/vectorization, memory access, concurrency, and I/O
Turn research prototypes into maintainable, testable, and evolvable production-grade indexing capabilities
Use AI tools across the research and engineering workflow, including paper analysis, prototype generation, code implementation, testing, benchmarking, documentation, and performance analysis

What we're looking for:

3+ years of experience in vector search, ANN algorithms, search systems, high-performance computing, or performance-critical systems
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
Strong C++ or Rust programming ability and solid engineering fundamentals
Experience with vector similarity search, ANN algorithms, index structures, quantization, compression, reranking, or high-performance retrieval systems is a strong plus
Strong interest in research-driven engineering: reading papers, evaluating tradeoffs, building prototypes, and turning ideas into production systems
Experience with performance optimization and systematic debugging is a strong plus, especially around CPU/GPU execution, SIMD, memory layout, concurrency, I/O, or large-scale data processing
Interest in using AI tools to improve research, coding, testing, benchmarking, documentation, and performance analysis

How we operate:

Research-driven, production-focused: We track frontier algorithms, but care most about whether they work under real data scale, real query patterns, and real production constraints
Extreme performance: We care about every memory access, every query path, and every tradeoff between recall and latency
AI-first engineering: We actively use AI to accelerate paper reading, prototyping, coding, testing, documentation, and performance analysis, but human judgment and engineering taste still matter most
Fast and pragmatic: We work on hard vector indexing and retrieval problems, but we ship them into Milvus, Zilliz Cloud, and Vector Lakebase
Open source by default: Milvus is a core part of our engineering culture, and strong indexing capabilities should stand up to public design, code, and community usage

Benefits:

Competitive compensation (cash + equity)
Regular bonus and equity refresh opportunities
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
Paid time off, including vacation, sick leave, and global reset/wellbeing days
Generous 401(k) and regional retirement plans

Benefits

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision insurance plans for employees and eligible family members.
• Unlimited PTO: Flexible paid time off to rest, recharge, and take care of personal needs.
• Competitive Compensation and Equity: Competitive cash compensation and long-term incentive opportunities, including stock options.
• 401(k) with Company Match: Retirement savings plan with employer matching contributions.

Zilliz is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.