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 architecture, covering Ingress, security controls, private connectivity, and DNS management.

This is a high-impact role for an engineer who excels at designing high-performance, scalable distributed systems and can drive technical initiatives across the entire organization.

What You Will Be Doing

• Technical Vision: Set the direction for major networking initiatives, owning designs from proposal through general availability.
• System Development: Lead the development of Ingress, private connectivity, DNS, and security controls at scale for Elastic Cloud.
• Cross-Team Leadership: Drive multi-quarter, cross-organizational projects and guide them to successful delivery.
• 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 development across the organization.
• Strategic Partnership: Advise product management and senior leadership on technical trade-offs, feasibility, and roadmap direction.

What You Bring

• Experience: Proven track record at the Staff or Principal level in building complex, production-grade distributed systems.
• Networking Expertise: Deep knowledge of cloud-native networking, including Ingress, private connectivity, DNS, and security controls.
• Distributed Systems: Experience building large-scale systems from the ground up rather than relying solely on off-the-shelf services.
• Operational Mindset: Experience operating high-availability SaaS platforms with a focus on observability and reliability.
• Communication: Ability to drive decisions in a distributed team using asynchronous, transparent communication.
• AI Proficiency: A track record of using AI to accelerate development and debug complex systems.

Bonus Points

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