Show Notes
AI gets all the hype – but behind every “smart” feature is a blisteringly fast, brutally efficient platform making it work in production. In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Seamus, Will and Elliott sit down with Ren Shao, a Staff Engineer in SEEK’s Artificial Intelligence Platform Services (AIPS) team, to unpack how SEEK’s AI-driven search really works under the hood – from models and rankings to GeoHash, big-O and CPU caches.
This episode's special guest: Ren Shao (SEEK Staff Engineer)
In this episode, we explore: • How SEEK’s AI search actually works under the hood – from turning “17-year-old jobs” into normalized queries, to ranking 200K+ jobs in real time, to using historical clicks and impressions to learn what candidates really mean. • Why this is more “systems engineering” than sci-fi AI – big-O thinking, GeoHash-powered radius search, clever use of CPU caches and HashMaps, and the “latency numbers every programmer should know” that turn textbook algorithms into production-grade platforms. • How to break into AI platform roles without a PhD – the difference between data engineers, data scientists and “small systems” engineers at AIPS; why curiosity about internals matters more than memorising neural nets; and how open-source code, sites like Codewars and tools like Hugging Face can be your on-ramp.
If you’re in software engineering, data, SRE, platform, architecture or IT leadership and want to see what real-world AI platforms actually look like – not just the buzzwords – this episode is a masterclass in building fast, safe and scalable systems that power millions of job searches every day.
🔔 Follow the SEEK Bytes podcast so you never miss a new episode
More from SEEK Bytes
This special Season 3 finale of SEEK Bytes – a podcast for engineers by engineers – dives into one of the biggest AI engineering shifts of the moment: spec-driven development with GitHub Spec Kit. If you’ve been wondering how teams are using AI for more than just code completion, this episode unpacks a workflow designed to help engineers plan better, reduce drift and build higher-quality software faster.
What happens when you give 100 high school students four days, real SEEK mentors and a crash course in how tech actually works? In this episode of SEEK Bytes – we're joined by special guests Asha Ioculari and Leon Belobrov and go behind the scenes of Camp SEEK, SEEK’s immersive program designed to open the doors of tech to girls and non-binary students and show them there’s far more to this industry than just writing code. From design thinking and user research to pitching in front of 200+ people and senior SEEK leaders, this is a brilliant look at how SEEK is building confidence, broadening horizons and helping shape a more inclusive future for tech.
Ever shipped a UI that “works” but still feels clunky, janky or confusing to users? In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Elliott and Will chat with lead engineer Eddy Nguyen about Bleeds – a simple but powerful way to design every UI state your users actually experience, not just the happy path.
AI might look simple on the surface — just send a prompt, get a response — but behind the scenes, there’s a whole platform challenge to solve. In this episode of SEEK Bytes – we’re joined by Thet Ko, Senior Staff Engineer in SEEK’s AI Platform Services team, to unpack how SEEK is building an AI Gateway to centralise AI calls, improve governance and make it easier for teams to build with AI without reinventing the foundations every time. From cost visibility and PII protection to guardrails, resilience and shared memory across agents, this episode lifts the lid on the platform work that makes enterprise AI actually usable at scale.
AI is moving fast — but are we building it responsibly? In this episode of SEEK Bytes – we sit down with Sreyna Rath, CEO and co-founder of jaimee.ai, who arrived in Australia as a refugee and is now running her own AI company with the aim to create something truly transformative for women. Elliott sits down with Reyna to unpack her journey and the real-world risks of AI bias, why safety can’t be bolted on at the end, and what developers can do to build tools that are fairer, safer and more human from day one. From biased hiring systems to sexualised image outputs and AI companions designed for vulnerable users, this conversation is a powerful reminder that AI doesn’t just reflect technology — it reflects us.