Ontrac Solutions

Compensation

Full Description

Innovate. Create. Elevate. At Ontrac Solutions, we partner with elite engineering organizations to build systems that operate at planetary scale. Our client, a founding search company, is evolving the foundation of its core search platform — and we are looking for a Principal Python Engineer who does not just use Python… but understands it at its core execution model. This is not a feature role. This is not application engineering. This is infrastructure that shapes user experience at massive scale. The Mandate Design and optimize the Python systems that power: • Global indexing pipelines • Real-time search services • Ranking and relevance models • High-QPS distributed APIs • ML-integrated search architecture You will operate where performance, scale, and precision intersect. The Environment You'll Influence You'll work alongside teams leveraging: • Apache Lucene • Elasticsearch • Apache Solr • Apache Kafka • Hadoop • TensorFlow • PyTorch This is distributed systems engineering at scale. Latency matters. Throughput matters. Architecture matters. Experience • Has 10+ years of Python engineering in production • Understands CPython internals and performance trade-offs • Has optimized systems around GIL, async I/O, multiprocessing • Has built high-throughput services serving millions of users • Has architected distributed systems end-to-end • Can debug performance issues at memory and execution level • Has operated at Staff or Principal level with architectural ownership You don't just ship code. You design systems that scale. What You'll Actually Do • Architect low-latency Python services supporting core search • Optimize indexing and ranking pipelines • Improve query response times at scale • Design concurrency strategies for performance-critical systems • Influence system-level architectural decisions • Mentor senior engineers and elevate technical standards • Bridge ML-driven ranking systems with production-grade infrastructure The Impact Your work will: • Directly influence millions of search queries • Reduce latency across global systems • Increase relevance accuracy • Improve infrastructure resiliency • Shape the evolution of Yahoo's search architecture This is high-visibility, high-impact engineering. What Makes This Opportunity Different Through Ontrac Solutions, you're not just stepping into a contract role. You're joining a performance-driven engineering ecosystem. We operate with: • Enterprise precision • Architectural rigor • Clear executive alignment • Outcome-driven delivery We partner with organizations where technical excellence is not optional — it's foundational. Ideal Background You may have: • Built large-scale search platforms • Worked on marketplace or ad-tech systems • Led distributed systems architecture • Contributed to open-source Python libraries • Operated in environments where uptime > 99.9% is mandatory Experience in relevance engineering, information retrieval theory, or ML-driven search pipelines is highly valued. Why This Role Is Elite This is not CRUD engineering. This is not startup experimentation. This is not maintenance work. This is: • Distributed systems at scale • Performance-critical Python engineering • Search infrastructure modernization • Architecture with real global impact About Ontrac Solutions Ontrac Solutions partners with enterprise platforms and high-growth organizations to deliver Cloud, AI, and Digital Product Engineering at scale. We operate at the intersection of: • Control • Clarity • Velocity • Institutional Trust If you are a Principal engineer who thrives in performance-critical environments and wants to build infrastructure that matters — we should talk.