Principal Software Engineer (Application Networking) - Platform Infrastructure

About the Role

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join our Platform Infrastructure team, specifically focusing on Application Networking. You will define the future of Elastic Cloud's networking, covering Ingress, security controls, private connectivity, and DNS management.

This is a high-impact role for an engineer who has designed high-performance, scalable networking platforms and can drive technical initiatives across the organization.

What You Will Be Doing

• Technical Vision: Set the direction for major networking initiatives, owning designs from proposal to general availability.
• Development: Lead the development of Ingress, private connectivity, DNS, and security controls at scale for Elastic Cloud.
• Operational Excellence: Raise the bar for service quality, lead complex incident investigations, and participate in on-call rotations.
• Leadership: Mentor engineers, serve as a subject matter expert, and act as a trusted advisor to senior engineering stakeholders.
• Strategy: Partner with product management to navigate technical trade-offs and roadmap direction.

What You Bring

• Proven experience setting technical direction for complex distributed systems at the Staff or Principal level.
• Deep expertise in application networking and cloud-native architecture (Ingress, DNS, security controls).
• Experience building large-scale distributed systems rather than relying solely on off-the-shelf services.
• Ability to own projects from end-to-end, including technical design and cross-team collaboration.
• Strong operational background with high-availability SaaS platforms.
• Experience using AI to accelerate development and debug complex systems.
• Excellent communication skills, capable of influencing direction without formal authority.

Bonus Points

• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes networking (Cilium, external-dns, Envoy Gateway, Crossplane).
• Experience with major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Contributions to CNCF or other open-source networking projects.