Principal Software Engineer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch

Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find answers in real time using all their data at scale. The Elastic Search AI Platform is used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500. We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch Performance team.

• Own core performance engineering initiatives from architecture to production.
• Lead technical design and execution for major architectural and code-level performance improvements.
• Develop foundational performance models and methodologies for complex distributed systems.
• Drive optimization strategies to ensure Elasticsearch remains performant, predictable, and scalable.
• Profile and analyze system behavior to identify bottlenecks in logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL.
• Ensure robust performance benchmarks and regression detection for stateful and stateless (Serverless) architectures.
• Collaborate across the company to embed performance-first thinking.
• Design and build AI-assisted optimization harnesses.
• Mentor and coach other engineers.

• Deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management.
• Understanding of concurrency models and ability to write high-performance, thread-safe, lock-free code.
• Experience with large open-source and enterprise codebases.
• Proven experience in profiling and optimizing distributed systems, including benchmarking tools (flamegraphs, JMH, Rally).
• Solid comprehension of distributed systems architecture.
• Track record of using AI or advanced tooling to accelerate optimization and automate benchmarking.
• Ability to collaborate across functions and teams.
• Ability to work autonomously in a distributed team.

• Experience integrating high-performance native libraries (C++, Rust, SIMD-accelerated code) into Java applications.
• Deep knowledge of modern storage engine performance, index modes, or vector search optimizations.
• Experience defining and managing Performance SLAs.
• Experience working on the internals of a large-scale data store or search engine.

The typical starting salary range for this role is €67,000—€106,000 EUR. This role does not have a variable compensation component.

Elastic offers health coverage for you and your family in many locations, a minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave, and a generous number of vacation days each year. As a distributed company, Elastic provides flexible locations and schedules for many roles.

Apply via the provided link. For accommodation requests, email candidate_accessibility@elastic.co.