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 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, continuously optimizing for performance and reliability.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Drive multi-quarter, cross-organizational projects and partner with product management to define roadmaps.
• Operational Excellence: Lead complex incident investigations, improve service quality, and participate in on-call rotations.
• Mentorship: Act as a subject matter expert, mentor engineers, and set the standard for software engineering practices across the organization.

What You Bring

• Experience: Proven track record at the Staff or Principal level building complex, high-performance distributed systems in production.
• Networking Expertise: Deep knowledge of cloud-native networking, including Ingress, private connectivity, DNS, and security controls.
• Ownership: Ability to own projects from end-to-end, including technical design and cross-functional coordination.
• Operational Mindset: Experience operating high-availability SaaS platforms with a focus on observability and reliability.
• Communication: Strong ability to influence technical direction across teams using asynchronous and transparent communication.

Bonus Points

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

Benefits

• Competitive pay with a transparent compensation philosophy.
• Flexible locations and schedules.
• Health coverage for you and your family.
• Generous annual vacation time.
• Financial matching for charitable donations and volunteer time off.
• Minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave.