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Principal Software Engineer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch

Elastic· Platform - Elasticsearch
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Hybrid (Portugal)€67k - €106kfull-timePosted 2mo ago

About the role

Principal Software Engineer to lead architectural and code-level performance engineering initiatives for Elasticsearch, driving optimization, benchmarking, and AI-assisted optimization harnesses to ensure performance, scalability, and predictability across distributed systems.

Responsibilities

  • Owning core performance engineering initiatives from architecture to production, focusing on the delivery of high-impact optimizations. Leading the technical design, plan, and execution for major architectural and code-level performance improvements.
  • Developing foundational performance models and methodologies for complex, distributed systems.
  • Driving optimization strategies to ensure Elasticsearch remains performant, predictable, and scalable in diverse environments.
  • Profiling and analyzing system behavior to identify bottlenecks in logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL.
  • Ensuring robust performance benchmarks and regression detection for both stateful and stateless (Serverless) architectures.
  • Collaborating across the company to embed performance-first thinking into new features from the outset.
  • Drive automation efforts by designing and building AI-assisted optimization harnesses that streamline profiling, hypothesis testing, and benchmarking.
  • Mentoring and coaching other engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and performance-aware development.

Qualifications

  • Deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management.
  • Understanding of concurrency models and ability to write high-performance, thread-safe, and lock-free code.
  • Experience with profiling and optimizing distributed systems, benchmarking tools (e.g., flamegraphs, JMH, Rally), identifying performance regressions, and optimizations.
  • Solid understanding of distributed systems architecture, partition tolerance, cluster state propagation, and scaling in large-scale data stores.
  • Proven track record of using AI or advanced tooling to accelerate optimization and automate benchmarking workflows.
  • Ability to collaborate across functions and teams and transition between projects, codebases, or teams based on priorities.
  • Ability to work autonomously, drive decisions, and operate in a distributed team with asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication.

Skills

Required:Java performance and JVM internalsDistributed systems profilingCross-functional collaboration
Nice to have:AI-assisted optimization tooling

Benefits

  • Competitive pay
  • Health coverage for you and your family in many locations
  • Flexible locations and schedules
  • Generous vacation days
  • Company matches up to $2000 for charitable donations
  • Up to 40 hours per year for volunteer projects
  • Minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave
  • Inclusive and diverse work environment
  • Accommodations available upon request
Last updated Aug 20, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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