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Senior Software Engineer - Search Algorithms - Elasticsearch

Elastic· Platform - Elasticsearch
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Hybrid (United States)$133.1k - $210.6kfull-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Senior Software Engineer on the Elasticsearch - Search Relevance team responsible for technical direction, design and implementation of search features, and improvements to search relevance, including contributions to Lucene and vector search capabilities.

Responsibilities

  • Lead initiatives within Elasticsearch to produce an industry-leading search engine offering, supplying unparalleled speed and relevance in search.
  • Contribute to Elasticsearch full time, building new search features and fixing intriguing bugs, including developing new algorithms or data structures as needed.
  • Work with a globally distributed team focusing on the vector search capabilities of Elasticsearch.
  • Be an expert on Elasticsearch search relevance, driving improvements based on analysis and instincts.
  • Collaborate with community members on issues and pull requests, triaging or handling them as needed.
  • Write idiomatic modern Java (Elasticsearch is 99.8% Java).

Qualifications

  • Professional experience with search or vector databases, with usage of HNSW, IVF, or other relevant algorithms and libraries at scale.
  • Solid skills in core Java, knowledge of standard data structures, concurrency constructs, and features like lambdas.
  • Ability to work autonomously, drive projects from design to delivery, and collaborate across teams.
  • Experience with multiple data storage technologies (e.g., Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra) and understanding of their trade-offs.
  • Proven track record of using AI to accelerate development, debugging, and optimization, while owning outcomes.
  • Ability to collaborate across functions and transition between projects, codebases, or teams based on priorities.
  • Experience working asynchronously and collaboratively over the internet.

Skills

Required:JavaSearch relevanceVector search

Benefits

  • Stock program eligibility (in addition to cash compensation).
  • Company-matched 401k with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 6% of eligible earnings.
  • Holistic benefits package focused on well-being.
Last updated Sep 3, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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Power insights and outcomes with The Elastic Search AI Platform. See into your data and find answers that matter with enterprise solutions designed to help you accelerate time to insight.

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