Backend Engineer AI & Search Platform

We’re building a brand-new AI Engineering Tea m - and this is your chance to join from day one.
As an Backend Engineer - AI & Search Platform , you’ll design and build the backend that helps our users quickly find the information they need, right inside our product. You’ll connect internal and external systems, ingest and structure data, and make it searchable and easy to consume.

You’ll turn ML and AI into real user value, integrating existing models, libraries, and frameworks rather than training models from scratch.
And you’ll love it here if you want to shape the architecture, define how AI is applied across our platform, and work in a product-minded engineering culture where experimentation, ownership, and learning are part of everyday work.

Haiilo is a leading employee communications and engagement platform that empowers companies to foster a more connected, engaged, and aligned workforce. Our solutions enable businesses to streamline internal communications, enhance employee advocacy, and boost overall company culture. We make it easy for over 1000 organisations to share important information, measure engagement, and amplify employee voices.

What we are looking for:

• 3+ years hands-on experience building and operating Spring Boot (Java) services backed by a SQL database
• Experience with Transformer architectures (encoder or decoder)
• Experience integrating external APIs and connecting diverse systems
• Huge interest in cutting-edge technologies for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems
• Bonus points for hands-on experience with PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, Python, and AI agents
• Extra edge if you’ve worked with Kubernetes, Java profiling and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

We encourage you to apply even if your profile does not yet meet all the requirements for the position. At Haiilo we support your personal development as well as your individuality, no matter what background you have.

Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and operate backend services that make AI-powered search and discovery seamless
• Connect internal and external data sources to create a foundation for intelligent product features
• Build scalable pipelines that make information searchable, consumable, and actionable
• Collaborate with frontend and product teams to deliver end-to-end user value, not just APIs
• Continuously improve performance, reliability, and observability of our AI-driven services
  Help define how we apply AI responsibly, efficiently, and meaningfully across our platform

What we offer:

👩🏼‍💻Flexibility & Teamwork: We love our hybrid setup and meet to work on-site at least 1 day/week, with Wednesdays as the designated in-office day. While Wednesday is the minimum, we recommend spending 2 (or more) days in the office each week.

🎉Company Vibe: We value spending time together, so you’ll get to join regular team socials, themed afterworks (e.g. Pride Month, Cultural Awareness Month, etc.), in-person workshops, and our annual company week in Hamburg 🥳

🚀Growth: At Haiilo, we are passionate about personal and professional growth. Our leadership is dedicated to helping you improve every day, through individual and group workshop sessions, financial support for training, conferences, books, etc. and external learning resources (e.g. access to Blinkist)

🌴Time off: Depending on your location, we offer up to 30 vacation days to take some well-deserved time off. Our employees in all locations get 2 annual company-wide self-care days on top of the normal vacation days (because we love what we do, but we also love a healthy work-life balance!)

🌟Health & wellbeing: To promote physical and mental wellbeing, we not only offer health insurance for all locations and a discount for sports memberships but also access to Nilo.health. ’Cause healthy employees = happy employer!

🌏Sustainability: We only have one planet: We understand the importance of sustainability. We are a carbon-neutral company, our merch is sustainable and we offer exclusive discounts for sustainable brands through FutureBens

🫂Diversity & Inclusion: We are committed to a diverse and inclusive environment. As an international and multicultural team with different skills, ideas and experiences, we actively work to represent and promote diversity in the company