Senior Software Developer - Storage Engine - Elasticsearch

About the Role

Elastic is looking for a Senior 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 improving storage efficiency, advancing ES|QL query processing, and optimizing data layouts for object storage.

What You Will Be Doing

• Lead the architectural evolution of core storage engine components, resolving performance bottlenecks in indexing, serialization, and resource utilization.
• Lead cross-organizational initiatives to drive industry-leading observability solutions.
• Collaborate with a global team focused on logs and metrics capabilities.
• Drive system improvements by introducing clean coding standards and architectural clarity.
• Serve as a subject matter expert (SME) and mentor to the wider engineering organization.
• Write idiomatic modern Java (Elasticsearch is 99.8% Java).

What You Bring

• Ability to collaborate across functions and teams, working autonomously in a distributed environment.
• Proven track record of using AI to accelerate development and debug complex systems with a prompt-engineering mindset.
• Experience implementing novel techniques to efficiently index, store, and query time-series or logs data.
• Strong core Java skills, including deep understanding of concurrency primitives and data structure optimization.
• Experience with data storage technologies (e.g., Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Prometheus).
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with a focus on empathy and professionalism.

Bonus Points

• Prior experience building with Elasticsearch.
• Experience with open source projects and CI/CD workflows.
• Background in database, search engine, OS, or cloud service development.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives.

Benefits

• Competitive pay with stock program eligibility.
• Company-matched RRSP (up to 6%).
• Flexible locations and schedules.
• Generous annual vacation policy.
• Financial donation matching and volunteer time off.
• Minimum 16 weeks of parental leave.
• Comprehensive health coverage.