Search candidate profiles

We need three senior backend engineers for the cloud team. Run a boolean search targeting backend, Go, Python, distributed systems, and AWS, limited to candidates in the Bay Area with open-to-work status. Review the top 50 results, shortlist ten who have at least five years in backend systems and two of those keywords in their profile, and send the shortlist to Marco in engineering for quick feedback by Wednesday.

Before I send this candidate list to Marco, surface the strongest signals up front: show years of backend experience next to each name, list the two most relevant technologies from their profile, and flag any open-source or production scale features. Highlight anything that suggests immediate fit for our cloud stack.

I ran a search for senior backend engineers and the results are noisy — product engineers, devops, and full-stack folks with a single backend mention. Marco expects a clean shortlist by Wednesday. I’m unsure whether to tighten keywords and risk missing diverse candidates or keep it broad and spend hours triaging. What search adjustments will most efficiently surface true backend system engineers?

Over several hiring cycles I spend too much time filtering search returns because my queries pull in unrelated roles. I think my keyword approach is the problem but I don’t know which patterns to change. What search strategy and naming conventions should I adopt to reduce false positives and cut triage time in half?