Search Software Engineer – E‑commerce

About the role

Takealot.com, South Africa's leading online retailer, is seeking a Search Software Engineer to help maintain and evolve its search stack. You will work on high‑traffic e‑commerce systems, contributing to both existing features and new capabilities while supporting a 24/7 operation.

Key responsibilities

• Design, build and improve search‑related solutions for business users and customers.
• Architect and develop high‑quality production code at scale, focusing on both functional and non‑functional aspects.
• Participate in architecture reviews, propose improvements, and ensure alignment across engineering teams.
• Provide on‑call, rotational after‑hours support to resolve critical incidents.
• Respond to production alerts, investigate bugs, and drive resolution of cross‑team issues.
• Champion best practices, contribute to internal documentation, and share knowledge through talks and workshops.

Required profile

• Strong interest in building robust, scalable software for an e‑commerce environment.
• Willingness to participate in on‑call rotations and support a 24/7 service.
• Ability to collaborate with peers, challenge existing processes, and drive technical improvements.

Required skills

• Experience with search technologies such as Elasticsearch, Vertex AI Search, Solr or Algolia.
• Proficiency in Python; experience with Java or Go is a plus.
• Familiarity with backend development and testing practices.