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Principal Software Engineer - Search Infra - Elasticsearch

Elastic· Platform - Elasticsearch
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Hybrid (Ireland)€102.7k - €162.5kfull-timePosted 4w ago

About the role

Principal Software Engineer role on the Elasticsearch - Search Infra team, shaping core search infrastructure, indexing, retrieval, and relevance with deep expertise in search internals. Global, distributed team focused on robust, scalable search experience and contributions to Lucene.

Responsibilities

  • Define, lead, and contribute to the evolution of core search and indexing capabilities.
  • Research advances in search infrastructure, data structures, and retrieval algorithms to build efficient foundations for users.
  • Collaborate with partners and product teams to shape the long-term technical vision for search at Elastic.
  • Drive an innovative roadmap for Elasticsearch’s indexing, query execution, and relevance layers.
  • Be an authority in several Elasticsearch domains 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 with technical and professional guidance.
  • Experience defining a long-term technical vision for a core search or retrieval system across teams.
  • Hands-on experience with Elasticsearch, Lucene, or Solr.
  • Strong skills in core Java, familiarity with advanced data structures and concurrency constructs, and knowledge of modern language features like lambdas.
  • 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) and understanding of their operating principles.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills; ability to collaborate across distributed teams.

Skills

Required:Technical leadershipMentoringTechnical visionSearch technologies

Benefits

  • Competitive pay and comprehensive health coverage for you and your family in many locations
  • Flexible calendar with hybrid/remote work options
  • Generous vacation days
  • Company donation matching up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent)
  • Up to 40 hours per year for volunteer projects
  • Parental leave minimum 16 weeks
  • Diversity and inclusion culture with equal opportunity employment
Last updated Sep 24, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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