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Senior Software Engineer - Vector Search - Elasticsearch

Elastic· Platform - Elasticsearch
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Remote$133.1k - $210.6kfull-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Senior Software Engineer role on the Elasticsearch - Search Relevance team, focusing on delivering a robust and feature-rich search experience, contributing to improvements in Lucene, and guiding technical direction for 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, potentially inventing new algorithms or data structures or optimizing OS/hardware interactions.
  • Work with a globally distributed team focused on vector search capabilities of Elasticsearch.
  • Be an expert on Elasticsearch search relevance, identifying and driving improvements based on analysis and instincts.
  • Collaborate with community members globally on issues and pull requests, triaging and handing off as needed.
  • Write idiomatic modern Java (Elasticsearch is 99.8% Java).

Qualifications

  • Implemented novel techniques in vector similarity on a search platform with a large user base or advanced academic research in vector similarity information retrieval.
  • Professional experience with search or vector databases, and experience with HNSW, IVF, or other relevant algorithms and libraries at scale.
  • Solid skills in core Java and familiarity with standard library data structures, concurrency constructs, and features like lambdas.
  • Ability to work autonomously, manage projects end-to-end, including technical design and cross-functional collaboration.
  • Experience developing collaboratively and handling asynchronous collaboration; bonus for online collaboration.
  • Experience with data storage technologies like Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Cassandra, and understanding how they work.
  • Proven track record of using AI to accelerate development, debugging complex systems, and optimizing code while owning outcomes.
  • Ability to collaborate across functions and transition between projects, codebases, or teams based on priorities.
  • Self-directed and capable of driving decisions and results in a distributed team through asynchronous, transparent communication.

Skills

Required:JavaVector similarity / vector databasesSearch systems / information retrievalDistributed and collaborative work
Nice to have:Data storage technologies

Benefits

  • Stock program eligibility
  • Company-matched 401k with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 6% of eligible earnings
  • Comprehensive benefits (health coverage for you and your family in many locations)
  • Flexible calendars and locations for many roles
  • Generous vacation days
  • Donations matching up to $2000 or local currency equivalent
  • Up to 40 hours/year for volunteer projects
  • Parental leave minimum 16 weeks
Last updated Sep 3, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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