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Principal Software Engineer - Search Infra - Elasticsearch

Elastic· Platform - Elasticsearch
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Hybrid (Remote)full-timePosted 4w ago

About the role

Principal software engineering role providing technical vision and direction for Elasticsearch’s core search infrastructure, including indexing, retrieval, and relevance, within the Elasticsearch - Search Infra team.

Responsibilities

  • Define, lead, and contribute to the evolution of core search and indexing capabilities for Elasticsearch
  • Research advances in search infrastructure, data structures, and retrieval algorithms
  • Collaborate with partners and product teams to shape long-term technical vision for search at Elastic
  • Drive an innovative roadmap for Elasticsearch’s indexing, query execution, and relevance layers
  • Act as an authority in several areas of Elasticsearch and continuously improve them through insights and collaboration

Qualifications

  • Experience leading technical projects in the search infrastructure and distributed systems space
  • Experience mentoring expert engineers and providing technical and professional guidance
  • Experience defining a long-term technical vision for a core search or retrieval system
  • Hands-on experience with search and indexing technologies such as Elasticsearch, Lucene, or Solr
  • Strong skills in core Java and familiarity with advanced data structures and concurrency constructs; knowledge of lambdas and modern Java features
  • Ability to work autonomously from concept to completion, including technical design and cross-team collaboration
  • Experience with large-scale data or search systems (e.g., Elasticsearch, Lucene, Solr) or distributed storage engines
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills and ability to collaborate across distributed teams

Skills

Required:Experience leading technical projects in search infrastructure and distributed systemsMentoring engineersLong-term technical visionSearch and indexing technologiesJava and concurrency

Benefits

  • Competitive pay based on the work you do here and not your previous salary
  • Health coverage for you and your family in many locations
  • Flexible locations and schedules for many roles
  • Generous number of vacation days each year
  • Up to $2000 matching for financial donations and service
  • Up to 40 hours per year for volunteer projects
  • Minimum of 16 weeks parental leave
  • Inclusive and equal opportunity employer with accommodations on request
Last updated Sep 24, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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