Software Engineer (Java, C++)

About the Company

Elastic, the Search AI Company, empowers organizations and individuals to locate the answers they seek in real-time by harnessing all their data at scale. The company's innovative platform integrates the precision of search with the intelligence of AI, enabling accelerated results that matter. Used by more than half of the Fortune 500, Elastic's comprehensive, cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability help organizations unlock the full potential of their data while ensuring privacy and security. Elastic's commitment to innovation and excellence positions it as a leader in the AI and data management space, fostering a dynamic environment where technology and talent converge to create impactful solutions.

About the Role

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join our Elasticsearch Storage Engine team. This globally distributed, fully remote team comprises experienced engineers dedicated to developing core storage and query technologies tailored for observability workloads. The role involves enhancing storage efficiency, advancing Elasticsearch Query Language (ES|QL) processing and performance, and optimizing data layouts for object storage. As a key contributor, you will drive the technical vision, architecture, and design of Elasticsearch’s core storage and query engine.

Elastic operates with a distributed by design philosophy, hiring top talent worldwide and fostering collaboration across continents through email, GitHub, Zoom, and Slack. Our culture emphasizes writing fast, scalable, and intuitive software by empowering individual engineers, conducting thorough code reviews, reaching consensus on major decisions, and striving for continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience with core Java development and concurrency primitives
• Proven ability to design and optimize efficient data structures and algorithms
• Experience with data storage technologies such as Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Prometheus
• Strong understanding of storage and query engine architectures
• Experience with indexing, storing, and querying time-series or log data
• Familiarity with open source projects, source control workflows, and continuous integration
• Ability to collaborate seamlessly across functions and teams
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Experience leveraging AI to accelerate development, debugging, and code optimization
• Prompt-engineering mindset to effectively utilize AI agents with sound engineering judgment
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and mentoring engineering teams

Responsibilities

• Lead the architectural evolution of core storage engine components, identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks in indexing layouts, serialization formats, and resource utilization
• Drive cross-organizational initiatives to develop industry-leading observability solutions
• Collaborate with a globally distributed team focused on logs and metrics capabilities within Elasticsearch
• Implement continuous system and operational improvements by establishing best practices for clean coding, system behavior analysis, and architectural clarity
• Serve as a subject matter expert (SME) across key areas of Elasticsearch, providing technical guidance and mentorship to peers
• Participate in triaging, resolving, and reviewing issues and pull requests, collaborating with domain experts as needed
• Write idiomatic, modern Java code to ensure high performance and maintainability
• Promote best practices for security, privacy, and system resilience in all development activities

Benefits

• Competitive salary based on experience and skills
• Comprehensive health coverage for employees and their families in many locations
• Flexible work schedules and remote work options
• Generous paid vacation and time off policies
• Matching donations up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent) for charitable contributions
• Up to 40 hours annually dedicated to volunteer projects
• Minimum of 16 weeks parental leave to support new parents
• Participation in Elastic’s stock program and 401k plan with company match
• Dedicated resources for personal development and work-life balance