Also called: Search Relevance Engineer, Information Retrieval Engineer
Builds the systems that decide which results show up first when you type into a search box.
You tune how a shopping site ranks 50 million products so that "red running shoes" shows the right thing first. You run experiments comparing two ranking formulas on real users and read the numbers to see which one people click. These days much of the work involves vector search for AI chatbots.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 5 years after high school. Bachelor's or master's in computer science; information retrieval or ML coursework helps.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics.
Growing much faster than average (about 15% over 10 years). Tracks software developers; search is hot again because AI chatbots need retrieval.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI is reinventing search, creating demand for engineers who build retrieval and ranking systems; routine tuning is automated.
Classes: AP Computer Science A, AP Statistics, AP Calculus.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-1252.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.