Principal Software Engineer - Search Scaling - Elasticsearch

Role Description

We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch - Search Scaling team. This globally-distributed team of experienced engineers focuses on delivering a robust and feature-rich search experience, including contributing to improving the search experience in Lucene. This is a principle software engineering role that entails using your vast knowledge in this space in order to define, direct, and build the next generation of Elasticsearch capabilities. This role provides technical vision and direction for Elasticsearch’s core search infrastructure, including indexing, retrieval, and relevance, and requires deep expertise in search internals and cross-team collaboration.

As a full-time Elasticsearch contributor, you will:

• Define, lead, and contribute to the evolution of core search and indexing capabilities.
• Research advances in search infrastructure, data structures, and retrieval algorithms.
• Work closely with partners and product teams to understand their needs.
• Shape the long-term technical vision for search at Elastic.
• Drive an innovative roadmap for Elasticsearch’s indexing, query execution, and relevance layers.
• Continuously improve areas of expertise through insights and instincts.

Qualifications

• Experience leading technical projects in the search infrastructure and distributed systems space.
• Proven knowledge in building and operating sophisticated search platforms.
• Experience mentoring expert engineers, providing both technical and professional guidance.
• Experience defining a long-term technical vision for a core search or retrieval system.
• Hands-on experience with search and indexing technologies such as Elasticsearch, Lucene, or Solr.
• Strong skills in core Java and familiarity with advanced data structures and concurrency constructs.
• Able to work with a high level of autonomy, tackling projects from concept to completion.
• Experience with large-scale data or search systems such as Elasticsearch, Lucene, Solr, or distributed storage engines.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Requirements

• Experience with Elasticsearch, Lucene, or Solr.
• Strong desire to optimize and leverage the most efficient algorithms and search data structures.
• Ability to collaborate across distributed teams.

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.
• 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.
• Minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave.