# Software Engineer, Knowledge Engine – Query Engine at Exa

- Company: Exa
- What the company does: Search API for AI agents that need real-time web data, deep research, and structured content from one endpoint. Try our API for free. Backed by Lightspeed, Y Combinator and a16z.
- Company website: https://exa.ai/
- Type: Startups (AI role)
- Level: Mid level
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Work setup: On-site
- Pay: $180K to $350K base salary per year (USD)
- Posted: 2026-10-22
- Apply by: 2026-12-06
- Apply: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/exa/d785f622-9b1c-4e27-9cb6-686546028576?utm_source=1752vc&utm_medium=careers
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/exa-software-engineer-knowledge-engine-query-engine/

## About the role

Own storage and indexing across backends: data layout, partitioning and indexes for graph, vector, full-text, time-series and geospatial retrieval, with bulk snapshot builds and live ingest that never take the system down. Decide how best to search: cost-based planning from cardinality estimates that chooses, for each question, which backends to use, in what order and how to join their results, executed as traversals, retrievals, filters and aggregations in one plan. Found on 1752vc Careers, the job board for startup and VC roles.

## What they're looking for

- You've worked deep inside a distributed database, query engine, search engine or storage system
- Strong grasp of indexing, query planning and optimization, and storage formats
- Solid grasp of distributed systems fundamentals: consensus, replication, sharding and fault tolerance
- Strong in a systems language (Go, Rust or C++)
- You profile before you optimize, and you've shipped measured latency wins in production
- You obsess over correctness, reliability and data quality as much as scale

Tags: Engineering

Source: 1752vc Careers, https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/exa-software-engineer-knowledge-engine-query-engine/