Search Consulting & Implementation Services
Build Search That Works as Hard as Your Business Does
OpenSearch is one of the most powerful open-source search platforms available today. But the gap between a working OpenSearch deployment and a truly high-performance one is wider than most teams expect—and that gap costs businesses in slow queries, poor relevance, missed results, and systems that buckle under production load.
I help engineering teams and business leaders close that gap. With 14 years of hands-on experience building enterprise search systems at global financial institutions—processing billions of documents, operating at petabyte scale, and delivering sub-second query latency under real production pressure—I bring a depth of practical expertise that goes beyond standard consulting.
What I Help You Build :
Search Architecture & Cluster Design
A poorly designed OpenSearch cluster is expensive to fix after the fact. I work with your team from the ground up—designing resilient, scalable cluster architectures that are sized correctly for your data volumes, query patterns, and growth trajectory. Whether you are starting fresh or scaling an existing deployment, the architecture decisions made early define what's possible later.
AI-Powered & Vector Search
Modern search is no longer just about keywords. I design and implement vector search capabilities within OpenSearch that enable semantic understanding—finding conceptually relevant results even when the exact words don't match. Combined with hybrid search approaches that blend vector similarity with traditional BM25 ranking, this delivers a step-change in search relevance for use cases like document discovery, legal research, and knowledge management.
RAG Integration
OpenSearch serves as a powerful retrieval backbone for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems. I build RAG pipelines that connect your OpenSearch index to large language models—giving your teams the ability to ask questions in plain language and receive accurate, sourced answers drawn directly from your own data. All architected with data privacy and access control built in from day one.
Performance Tuning & Relevance Optimisation
Raw speed is only half the picture. A search system that returns results quickly but ranks them poorly is still failing its users. I combine deep index configuration expertise with relevance engineering—tuning scoring models, implementing learning-to-rank, and measuring quality using industry-standard metrics including NDCG, MRR, and precision/recall—to ensure your search returns the right results, not just fast ones.
Migration & Modernisation
Moving from Elasticsearch to OpenSearch, or modernising a legacy search stack, carries real risk if not handled carefully. I have managed migrations at enterprise scale—maintaining service continuity, preserving data integrity, and minimising disruption to production systems throughout the transition.
Why Work With Me
I've built this at scale, not just in theory. The systems I've designed and delivered processed hundreds of millions of documents daily, operated across distributed infrastructure, and served users in some of the world's most demanding regulated environments. I know what breaks under production pressure—because I've seen it break, fixed it, and redesigned it so it doesn't break again.
I understand the business problem, not just the technical one. Search is never just a technical problem. It's a business one. Poor search costs legal teams hours of unnecessary research. It costs e-commerce businesses in abandoned sessions. It costs compliance and legal teams in missed risk signals buried in unstructured data. I bring a product mindset to every engagement—starting with the outcome your business needs and working backwards to the architecture that delivers it.
I've sat on both sides of the table. I've been the engineering leader accountable for search platform strategy, and I've been the hands-on architect writing the index configuration and tuning the relevance models. That dual perspective—understanding both what the business needs and what the system can actually do—means fewer surprises mid-engagement and better decisions at every stage.
Data security is not an afterthought. Having spent over a decade building search and AI systems inside regulated financial institutions, I treat data governance, access control, and audit logging as core engineering requirements—not compliance boxes to tick at the end. If you operate in a regulated industry or handle sensitive data, this isn't just a differentiator. It's table stakes.
Who This Is For
This service is designed for:
Engineering teams building or scaling OpenSearch deployments who need experienced guidance on architecture, performance, and AI integration
Legal and compliance teams looking to make their document and case libraries intelligently searchable
Financial services organisations that need high-performance search over structured and unstructured data with strict security and access control requirements
Product and technology leaders who want a trusted technical partner who can translate business requirements into search architecture—and then build it
Unique Capabilities You Won't Find Everywhere
Most OpenSearch consultants can configure a cluster. Fewer can do all of the following:
Design and implement RAG pipelines that use OpenSearch as a secure, private retrieval layer for LLM-powered Q&A systems
Apply financial-grade data security—access controls at the index level, audit logging, and data residency—built from direct experience in regulated environments
Tune search relevance using quantitative metrics—NDCG, MRR, precision and recall—not just intuition
Bridge the gap between search engineering and data engineering—designing indexing pipelines that integrate with your CRM or warehousing systems at scale
Bring genuine product ownership experience—having served as product owner on enterprise search platforms, I understand how to align technical decisions with long-term business strategy
How an Engagement Works
Every engagement starts with a conversation—not a sales pitch. I want to understand your current setup, your specific pain points, and what success looks like for your team before recommending anything.
From there, engagements typically take one of three forms:
Advisory & Architecture Review — A focused engagement to assess your current OpenSearch deployment, identify gaps, and produce a clear, prioritised roadmap for improvement.
Implementation Partnership — Hands-on design and build, working alongside your engineering team to deliver a specific capability: indexing, vector search, RAG integration, migration, or performance overhaul.
Ongoing Consulting Retainer — A flexible arrangement for teams that want regular access to senior OpenSearch expertise without the overhead of a full-time hire.
Ready to build search that actually performs? Get in touch for a no-obligation conversation about your OpenSearch challenges and what's realistically achievable.