Senior Software Engineer - Storage Engine - Elasticsearch

Role Description

We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer 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 designing, implementing, and optimizing Elasticsearch's core storage and query engine. The ideal candidate has experience building high-performance, scalable database, search, or distributed systems, with a strong focus on:

• Storage
• Indexing
• Query execution
• Performance optimization

Our company is distributed by intention. We hire the best engineers 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, intuitive, and high-quality software.

What You Will Be Doing

• Lead the architectural evolution of core storage engine components, continuously identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks in indexing layouts, serialization formats, and resource utilization.
• Lead cross-organizational initiatives to drive and build industry-leading observability solutions.
• Work with a globally distributed team of experienced engineers focused on the logs and metrics capabilities of Elasticsearch.
• Drive continuous operational and system improvements by introducing best practices for clean coding standards.
• Serve as a subject matter expert (SME) across key areas of Elasticsearch, acting as a trusted technical advisor and mentor to the wider engineering organization.
• Work with a global community to triage, resolve, and review issues and pull requests, collaborating with domain experts as needed.
• Write idiomatic modern Java -- Elasticsearch is 99.8% Java!

Qualifications

• You possess the ability to collaborate across functions and teams and seamlessly transition between different projects, codebases, or teams based on business priorities.
• You work autonomously and can drive decisions and results in a distributed team by leveraging asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication.
• You have a proven track record of using AI to accelerate development, debug complex systems, and optimize code, while still owning the final outcomes.
• You bring a prompt-engineering mindset to know how to leverage AI agents effectively, using sound engineering judgment to validate results and recognize its limitations.
• You have implemented novel techniques to efficiently index, store, and query time-series or logs data.
• You have experience with one or more data storage technologies like Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Prometheus.
• You have strong core Java skills, a deep understanding of its concurrency primitives, with a proven ability to design and optimize efficient data structures and algorithms.
• You excel in a collaborative environment, actively participate in technical discussions, and work effectively across distributed teams.
• You have excellent verbal and written communication skills and collaborate with respect, empathy, and professionalism in a distributed team.

Bonus Points

• You've built things with Elasticsearch before.
• You've worked with open source projects and are familiar with different styles of source control workflow and continuous integration.
• You’ve worked on data storage technology.
• You have experience designing, leading, and owning cross-functional initiatives.
• You have past working experience with database, search engine, OS, or cloud service development.

Compensation

Compensation for this role is in the form of base salary. This role does not have a variable compensation component. The typical starting salary range for this role is:

• 791.300 kr — 1.251.700 kr NOK

Benefits

• Competitive pay based on the work you do here and not your previous salary.
• Health coverage for you and your family in many locations.
• Ability to craft your calendar with flexible locations and schedules for many roles.
• Generous number of vacation days each year.
• Increase your impact - We match up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent) for financial donations and service.
• Up to 40 hours each year to use toward volunteer projects you love.
• Embracing parenthood with a minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave.