Principal Software Engineer - Storage Engine - Elasticsearch

About the Role

Elastic is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch - Storage Engine team. This globally distributed, fully remote team develops core storage and query technologies for observability workloads, including storage efficiency, ES|QL query processing, and object storage optimization.

As a Principal Engineer, you will drive the technical vision, architecture, and design of Elasticsearch's core engine. You will work with a team that values consensus, code reviews, and incremental improvements.

What You Will Be Doing

• Architectural Leadership: Lead the evolution of core storage engine components, resolving performance bottlenecks in indexing, serialization, and resource utilization.
• Strategic Initiatives: Lead cross-organizational initiatives to build industry-leading observability solutions.
• Technical Mentorship: Act as a subject matter expert (SME) and trusted advisor to the wider engineering organization.
• System Optimization: Introduce best practices for clean code and untangle complex system behaviors to provide architectural clarity.
• Hands-on Development: Write idiomatic modern Java and collaborate with the global community to triage and resolve issues.

What You Bring

• Technical Expertise: Strong core Java skills, including deep understanding of concurrency primitives and efficient data structure design.
• Domain Knowledge: Experience with data storage technologies (e.g., Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Prometheus).
• Distributed Collaboration: Proven ability to work autonomously and drive decisions in a distributed team using asynchronous communication.
• AI-Driven Development: A prompt-engineering mindset with a track record of using AI to accelerate development and debug complex systems while maintaining ownership of outcomes.
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills with a focus on empathy and professionalism.

Benefits & Perks

• Competitive Compensation: Base salary with eligibility for Elastic's stock program.
• Retirement: Company-matched 401k (up to 6%).
• Flexibility: Flexible locations and schedules.
• Well-being: Generous vacation time, health coverage, and a minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave.
• Giving Back: Matching donations up to $2,000 and 40 hours of paid volunteer time annually.