Principal Software Developer - Storage Engine - Elasticsearch

Role Description

We're looking for a Principal Software Developer to join the Elasticsearch - Storage Engine team . This globally distributed, fully remote team of experienced engineers develops core storage and query technologies for observability workloads, including:

• Improving storage efficiency
• Advancing ES|QL query processing and performance
• Optimizing data layouts for object storage

This role is responsible for driving the technical vision, architecture, and design of Elasticsearch's core storage and query engine. The ideal candidate has a proven track record of designing high-performance, scalable database or search engine technologies, along with the ability to drive technical initiatives across organizations.

Our company is distributed by intention. We hire the best developers we can find wherever they are, whoever they are. We collaborate across continents every day over email, GitHub, Zoom, and Slack. At our best, we write fast, scalable, and intuitive software. We believe that the best way to do that is to empower individual engineers, code review every change, decide big things by consensus, and strive for incremental improvements.

Qualifications

• Ability to collaborate across functions and teams
• Work autonomously and drive decisions in a distributed team
• Proven track record of using AI to accelerate development
• Prompt-engineering mindset to leverage AI agents effectively
• Implemented novel techniques for indexing, storing, and querying time-series or logs data
• Experience with data storage technologies like Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Prometheus
• Strong core Java skills and understanding of concurrency primitives
• Excel in a collaborative environment and participate in technical discussions
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Requirements

• Experience building with Elasticsearch
• Familiarity with open source projects and source control workflow
• Experience in data storage technology
• Experience designing, leading, and owning cross-functional initiatives
• Past working experience with database, search engine, OS, or cloud service development

Benefits

• Competitive pay based on the work you do
• Health coverage for you and your family in many locations
• Flexible locations and schedules for many roles
• Generous number of vacation days each year
• Financial matching for donations and service up to $2000
• Up to 40 hours each year for volunteer projects
• Minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave