Principal Software Engineer (Networking) - Platform Infra

Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find the answers they need in real time, using all their data, at scale — unleashing the potential of businesses and people. The Elastic Search AI Platform, used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500, brings together the precision of search and the intelligence of AI to enable everyone to accelerate the results that matter.

What is The Role

We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join Platform Infrastructure - Application Networking and set where Elastic Cloud application networking goes next. This work covers Ingress, security controls, private connectivity, and DNS management — the path every interaction with Elasticsearch, Kibana, and the broader Elastic stack takes. You will drive the technical vision, architecture, and design of these systems, not just execute against an existing roadmap.

This is a Principal-level role for an engineer who has designed high-performance, scalable networking platforms and can drive technical initiatives across organizations. Elastic is investing in the reliability, security, and reach of Elastic Cloud; you will hold a high bar for those qualities while other engineering teams rely on what this platform provides.

What You Will Be Doing

• Set the technical direction for major application networking initiatives, owning designs from proposal through general availability.
• Lead the development of Ingress, private connectivity, DNS, and security controls on a large scale for Elastic Cloud. Continuously identify and address issues related to performance, reliability, and operability.
• Lead multi-quarter, cross-organizational projects that other Elastic engineering teams rely on, and guide these projects through to delivery.
• Raise the operational quality of our services. Take charge of operational investigations from beginning to end. Lead complex incident investigations and reviews. Participate in on-call rotation.
• Mentor and support engineers across the team, serve as a subject matter expert and trusted technical advisor to the wider engineering organization, and set the standard for how we build software.
• Partner with and advise product management and senior engineering stakeholders on technical trade-offs, feasibility, and roadmap direction.
• Identify and champion improvements to security, stability, and cost efficiency before they become problems. Untangle complexity and bring architectural clarity across the platform.

What You Bring

• Experience with building software, including setting technical direction for complex distributed systems running production at scale (Staff or Principal level, or equivalent scope).
• Deep expertise in application networking and cloud-native architecture. You should understand how services communicate at scale. Knowledge of how to design, operate, and evolve Ingress, private connectivity, DNS, and security controls is required.
• Experience building large-scale distributed systems, rather than making use of off-the-shelf services.
• Ability to own projects from beginning to end, covering both technical design and guiding work involving multiple engineers.
• Operated high-availability SaaS platforms, responded to incidents, and improved reliability over time with a focus on testing, observability, and operability.
• Proven track record of using AI to accelerate development, debug complex systems, and optimize code, while still owning the final outcomes.
• Ability to collaborate across functions and teams and seamlessly transition between different projects, codebases, or teams based on business priorities.
• Ability to work autonomously, drive decisions, and results in a distributed team by leveraging asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication.

Bonus Points

• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes networking (Cilium, external-dns, Envoy Gateway, and Crossplane) and with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and its networking ecosystem.
• Contributions to CNCF or other open-source networking projects.