Senior Software Engineer, AI Retrieval

About the role

The AI Retrieval team powers the intelligence behind Asana's AI features by finding relevant work graph content and delivering it to LLM context windows. Our work enables AI features that truly understand your work - both within and outside of Asana - and use that understanding to take action. We also own Asana's traditional search experience. As a Senior Software Engineer on the AI Retrieval team, you will build the systems that make Asana's AI smart and responsive. You will tackle challenging problems in search and retrieval, working to improve the speed, cost-efficiency, and quality of our systems while expanding their capabilities to new data sources. This role is centered in Warsaw and operates within an office-centric hybrid framework.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Reduce the latency and cost of our retrieval system, making Asana's AI features faster and more efficient.
• Improve the quality and relevance of search results to help users find exactly what they need.
• Expand the retrieval system's capabilities to query new Asana objects and third-party data sources.
• Build and optimize search infrastructure using OpenSearch/ElasticSearch.
• Contribute to ML-powered features like embeddings-based retrieval and semantic search.
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners in New York City while building strong relationships with your Warsaw-based peers.
• Design and implement scalable retrieval pipelines that balance performance with accuracy.
• Troubleshoot production issues and drive observability for search and retrieval workflows.
• Partner with product and engineering teams to define retrieval strategies that align with business goals.
• Champion best practices for indexing, caching, and query optimization across the stack.

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience writing code in a production environment.
• Demonstrates curiosity about AI tools and emerging technologies, with a willingness to learn and leverage them to enhance productivity, collaboration, or decision-making.
• Hands-on experience in search engineering, including with OpenSearch or ElasticSearch.
• Experience with embeddings and machine learning approaches to search and retrieval.
• Experience in an Applied AI role is a plus.
• Strong proficiency in at least one backend programming language such as Python or Java.
• Solid understanding of distributed systems, data structures, and algorithms.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills to articulate technical concepts to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work asynchronously and collaboratively across time zones with teams based in New York City and Warsaw.
• Comfort operating in a fast-paced environment where priorities can shift based on product needs.
• Willingness to adhere to Asana's commitment to building diverse teams and inclusive culture.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with large language models and prompt engineering techniques.
• Knowledge of vector databases and hybrid search architectures.

Practical notes

This role is based in our Warsaw office with an office-centric hybrid schedule. The standard in-office days are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Most Asanas have the option to work from home on Wednesdays. Working from home on Fridays depends on the type of work you do, and your recruiter can share more about the in-office requirements. We offer a Contract of Employment (UoP) for our employees in Poland. For this role, the estimated base salary range is between 31,917 - 40,583 PLN gross per month (subject to all taxes and necessary deductions). The actual base salary will vary based on various factors, including market and individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process. The listed range above is a guideline, and the base salary range for this role may be modified. In addition to base salary, your compensation package may include additional components such as equity and sales incentive pay (for most sales roles), and benefits. If you are interviewing for this role, speak with your recruiter to learn more about the total compensation and benefits for this role.