Search Platform Engineer (Elasticsearch / Solr / OpenSearch)

About Precision Federal

Precision Federal is a Christian-owned small business building AI and software systems for federal agencies through the SBIR program. The founder is a Christian, and the company is run on Christian principles: every number we publish is real, every claim we make is verifiable, and the work is done with excellence as service to God. Every proposal we submit is backed by working prototypes built before we ask for a dollar.

How this role works

1. You join the bench. We name you (with a short bio) as a proposed consultant on proposals that match this role. Consent costs you nothing and commits you to nothing until an award funds.
2. A contract is awarded. Federal SBIR awards fund the team named in the proposal. Your engagement begins, at an hourly rate agreed before you were ever named.
3. You work remote, paid from the contract. ~40–80 hrs per funded award — and if no award ever funds, you owe nothing and lose nothing.

What you'll do

• Engineer Elasticsearch, OpenSearch or Solr platforms: crawler and index configuration, relevance and synonyms
• Integrate controlled vocabularies, SKOS taxonomies and Dublin Core metadata
• Build search analytics dashboards and admin roles
• Add retrieval-augmented generative answers with hallucination and omission measurement

Required qualifications

• Direct experience running a production search platform with relevance tuning
• Strong Python or Java and web-crawling experience
• U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (U.S. person)
• Willing to be named on a federal proposal with a one-page resume, and to sign a short letter of commitment

Preferred qualifications

• Government or library digital-collections search
• Knowledge-management taxonomy design
• Hosted search platform migration (Google Search Appliance successors)

Compensation & structure

1099 consulting engagement. $60–$100 per hour, confirmed in writing before you are named on any proposal. Hours are funded by federal contract awards — engagements on this bench have ranged from roughly 130 to 710 hours across a period of performance, fully remote. Work and pay begin only if the contract is awarded — no award, no hours, no obligation.

Apply — Search Platform Engineer (Elasticsearch / Solr / OpenSearch)

Every application is read personally by the founder. We respond to every serious one.

First name *

Last name *

Email *

Phone

City & state

Years of relevant experience * Select Under 5 5–10 10–15 15–20 20+

Work authorization * Select U.S. citizen U.S. lawful permanent resident Other

Security clearance Select (optional) None Prior (inactive) Active

Military service Select (optional) None Veteran Retired military Currently serving (Guard/Reserve)

LinkedIn or portfolio link

Resume (PDF or Word) *

How did you hear about us?

Five questions

These are the substance of the application. Answer from your own experience — a few sentences each is plenty, and “this never came up” is a real answer we want.

1. How often did a site search that ranked the press release above the form people were looking for come up in your work, and roughly what did it cost — in hours, in people, or in rework? *

2. What tool or process does your organization use today for enterprise and public-facing search platforms, and where does it fall short? *

3. If a better way to handle enterprise and public-facing search platforms existed, which office or role would decide whether to adopt it? *

4. Do you have any role in deciding what tools or systems your organization adopts — approving, evaluating, or recommending a purchase? *

5. Do you own, or hold signing authority for, a company or consultancy of your own? *

May we name you, by name and title, as a proposed consultant on our team in federal proposals, and quote your answers above? * Please choose… Yes No

Submit application

Questions before applying? contact@precisionfederal.com · See all open roles