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, including Ingress, security controls, private connectivity, and DNS management. This is a high-impact role where you will drive technical vision and architecture for the systems that power the entire Elastic stack.

What You Will Be Doing

• Technical Leadership: Set the direction for major networking initiatives, owning designs from proposal to general availability.
• System Development: Lead the development of Ingress, private connectivity, and DNS at scale for Elastic Cloud.
• Operational Excellence: Raise the bar for service quality, lead complex incident investigations, and participate in on-call rotations.
• Mentorship: Act as a subject matter expert, mentor engineers, and set standards for software craftsmanship across the organization.
• Strategic Partnership: Collaborate with product management and senior stakeholders to define technical trade-offs and roadmap direction.
• Optimization: Proactively identify and champion improvements to security, stability, and cost efficiency.

What You Bring

• Experience: Proven track record at the Principal or Staff level in building complex, distributed systems running in production at scale.
• Networking Expertise: Deep knowledge of cloud-native architecture, Ingress, private connectivity, DNS, and security controls.
• Distributed Systems: Experience building large-scale systems rather than relying solely on off-the-shelf solutions.
• Operational Mindset: Experience operating high-availability SaaS platforms with a focus on observability and reliability.
• Communication: Ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive decisions in a distributed, asynchronous environment.
• AI Proficiency: A track record of using AI to accelerate development and optimize code.

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.