Principal Software Engineer - Relevance in ES|QL - Elasticsearch

Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find the answers they need in real time, using all their data, at scale. 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 for search, security, and observability solutions. The company is distributed by intention, hiring the best engineers wherever they are and collaborating across continents via email, GitHub, Zoom, and Slack.

The role: We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch - Search team, a globally-distributed team of expert engineers focused on delivering a robust and feature-rich search experience, including contributing to improving the search experience in Lucene. This technical leader contributes to the technical direction and vision for search capabilities, including design and implementation of new search features, enhancements to search functionality, and resolving bugs.

• Lead initiatives within Elasticsearch to produce an industry-leading search engine offering with unparalleled speed and relevance in search.
• Contribute to Elasticsearch full time, building new search features and fixing bugs while making the code easier to understand; sometimes invent or implement a new algorithm or data structure, or get close to the operating system and hardware.
• Work with a globally distributed team of experienced engineers focused on the vector search capabilities of Elasticsearch.
• Be an expert on Elasticsearch search relevance, identifying and driving improvements based on your questions and instincts.
• Work with community members on issues and pull requests, triaging and handing off or handling them yourself.
• Write idiomatic modern Java — Elasticsearch is 99.8% Java.

• Professional experience with search and vector databases, using HNSW, IVF, or other relevant algorithms and libraries on search platforms at scale.
• Solid skills in core Java, conversant in the standard library of data structures and concurrency constructs, and features like lambdas.
• High level of autonomy, able to take on projects and guide them from beginning to end, covering technical design and working with other engineers.
• Comfortable developing collaboratively, giving and receiving feedback on code, approaches, and APIs.
• Experience with several data storage technologies like Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Cassandra.
• Proven track record of using AI to accelerate development, debug complex systems, and optimize code, while owning final outcomes.
• Ability to collaborate across functions and teams and transition between projects, codebases, or teams based on business priorities.
• Work autonomously and drive decisions in a distributed team via asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication.

Bonus points: Built things with Elasticsearch; worked with open source projects and different styles of source control workflow and continuous integration; experience with data storage technology; experience designing, leading, and owning cross-functional initiatives.

Compensation: Compensation is in the form of base salary with no variable component. The typical starting salary range is $159,800—$252,800 USD. In select locations (Seattle WA, Los Angeles CA, the San Francisco Bay Area CA, and the New York City Metro Area), an alternate range of $191,900—$303,500 USD applies. The role is eligible for Elastic's stock program, and the total rewards package includes a company-matched 401k with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 6% of eligible earnings.

Benefits: Health coverage for you and your family in many locations, flexible locations and schedules for many roles, generous vacation days, up to $2000 match for financial donations and service, up to 40 hours per year for volunteer projects, and a minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave.

Application: Apply through the job posting at jobs.elastic.co.