Lucidworks Search Specialist / Consultant

Role Type: Contract / Fractional / Advisory
Location: 100% Remote
Engagement: Immediate Start
Job Purpose
We are seeking an experienced Lucidworks Specialist / Search Relevance Engineer to lead a critical pre-launch search audit and provide ongoing optimization for an enterprise-level search implementation.
The primary immediate goal is to conduct a thorough audit of our current Lucidworks Fusion setup, optimize search relevance, fix mapping or configuration issues, and prepare the engine for production launch. Post-launch, the consultant will provide weekly/biweekly advisory and fine-tuning based on live search analytics and user behavior.
Key Responsibilities
Pre-Launch Audit & Diagnostics (Immediate Priority):
Perform a comprehensive audit of the current Lucidworks search structure, query logic, searchable-field mappings, boosts, and business/merchandising rules.
Evaluate index and query pipelines to identify performance bottlenecks or relevance mismatches.
Relevance Optimization & Recommendations:
Deliver clear, actionable recommendations to resolve configuration issues and enhance search precision/recall prior to launch.
Fine-tune boosting rules, synonym lists, taxonomies, and merchandising logic to align with business requirements.
Launch Readiness & Validation:
Validate and refine search configurations through end-to-end testing alongside product and platform teams.
Post-Launch Tuning & Advisory:
Provide ongoing support (weekly or biweekly) to monitor user search patterns, zero-result queries, and conversion metrics, continuously optimizing search relevance post-launch.
Required Qualifications & Experience
Lucidworks Expertise: Deep hands-on experience with Lucidworks Fusion (query pipelines, index pipelines, signals, and merchandising rules).
Solr / Search Fundamentals: Strong background in Apache Solr, schema design, text analysis, tokenizers, and field mapping.
Search Relevance Engineering: Proven track record in tuning search relevance, boosting algorithms, query parsing, and evaluation metrics.
Consultative Approach: Ability to audit existing environments quickly, present technical findings to stakeholders, and scope required technical work autonomously.
Work Details & Requirements
Availability: Immediate start required.
Format: Freelance
Engagement Structure: Initial intensive pre-launch sprint followed by weekly/biweekly retainer support.

Work arrangement
Yes