Principal Software Engineer - Search Infra - Elasticsearch
Elastic · United States
About this role
## Elastic — Principal Software Engineer (Search Infra / Elasticsearch) ### About the role Elastic (the Search AI Company) enables people to find answers in real time using all their data at scale. The Elasticsearch Search AI Platform is used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500 and combines search precision with AI intelligence. You’ll join the **Elasticsearch – Search Infra** team, a globally distributed group focused on delivering a robust, feature-rich search experience— including contributions to improving the search experience in **Lucene**. This is a **principal-level** role where you’ll define, direct, and build the next generation of Elasticsearch capabilities, providing technical vision and direction for core search infrastructure (indexing, retrieval, and relevance). ### What you’ll be doing - Define, lead, and contribute to the evolution of **core search and indexing** capabilities - Research advances in **search infrastructure**, data structures, and **retrieval algorithms** - Partner with product teams to understand needs and shape the long-term technical vision for search - Drive an innovative roadmap for Elasticsearch’s **indexing, query execution, and relevance** layers - Serve as a go-to expert in key Elasticsearch domains, continuously improving them through insight and engineering judgment ### What you will bring - Experience leading technical projects in **search infrastructure** and **distributed systems** - Proven knowledge building and operating sophisticated search platforms and high-performance software systems - Experience mentoring expert engineers (technical + professional guidance) - Ability to define a long-term technical vision for core **search/retrieval** systems across teams - Hands-on experience with search/indexing technologies such as **Elasticsearch, Lucene, or Solr** - Strong **core Java** skills; familiarity with advanced data structures and concurrency (including modern language features like lambdas) - Strong desire to optimize and leverage efficient algorithms and search data structures - Ability to work autonomously from concept to completion (technical design + collaboration) - Experience with large-scale data/search systems (e.g., Elasticsearch/Lucene/Solr/distributed storage engines) and understanding how/why they work - Excellent verbal and written communication; supportive, empathetic, and trusting collaboration across distributed teams ### Bonus points - Built with Elasticsearch before; strong understanding of search and information retrieval theory/constructs - Experience contributing to **open source** and familiarity with source control workflows and CI ### Compensation (base salary) - **Typical starting salary range:** **$159,800 — $252,800 USD** - **Select locations (Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, NYC Metro):** **$191,900 — $303,500 USD** ### Additional information - Elastic is committed to an inclusive culture and equal opportunity employment - Accessibility accommodations are available: **candidate_accessibility@elastic.co** - Benefits include health coverage (in many locations), flexible schedules for many roles, generous vacation, donation/service matching, volunteer time, and parental leave *Note: This posting includes additional legal/export-control information beyond the summary above.*
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