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Principal Java Engineer - Distributed Systems, Serverless - Elasticsearch

Elastic· Platform - Elasticsearch
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Hybrid (Ireland)€104.8k - €165.7kfull-timePosted 4mo ago

About the role

Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch - Distributed Systems team, focusing on scale, performance, and resilience for the Serverless Elasticsearch offering. tackle deep distributed systems challenges around node communication, indexing, allocation, and data management across nodes.

Responsibilities

  • Leveraging distributed systems expertise to design, build, and operate core pieces of the next-generation Serverless Elasticsearch offering
  • Improving Elasticsearch’s components that support concurrent and consistent indexing across multiple machines
  • Maintaining the cluster coordination system to sustain high performance as nodes join/leave and data moves, while preserving safety and liveness
  • Pushing the limits on the number of shards, nodes, and petabytes Elasticsearch can handle
  • Investigating issues including performance or concurrency and proposing solutions
  • Supporting support engineers with harder problems
  • Owning operational investigations end-to-end until performance or stability issues are resolved

Qualifications

  • Deep background in distributed systems and consensus algorithms
  • Strong skills in core Java and familiarity with standard data structures and concurrency constructs as well as newer language features
  • Deep technical proficiency in algorithms
  • Experience building large-scale distributed systems rather than using off-the-shelf services
  • Experience building and debugging complex features with broad impact across multiple machines
  • Ability to own projects from design to delivery and collaborate across teams
  • Experience managing projects involving multiple engineers
  • Proven track record of using AI to accelerate development, debug complex systems, and optimize code while owning outcomes
  • Ability to collaborate across functions and seamlessly transition between projects, codebases, or teams based on priorities
  • Ability to work autonomously, drive decisions and results in a distributed team using asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication

Skills

Required:Distributed systemsJavaAlgorithms

Benefits

  • Competitive pay based on work performed
  • Health coverage for you and your family in many locations
  • Flexible locations and schedules for many roles
  • Generous number of vacation days
  • Company matches up to $2000 for donations or local currency equivalent
  • Up to 40 hours per year for volunteer projects
  • Minimum of 16 weeks parental leave
Last updated Aug 13, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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