Principal Software Engineer (Performance Tuning, Elasticsearch)

• Elasticsearch powers search, observability, and AI retrieval (RAG) for the world’s largest organizations. We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch Performance team. In this role, you will lead architectural and code-level performance engineering initiatives. Your goal is to drive the continuous optimization and predictability of Elasticsearch performance, partnering with area-specific teams to unlock the full potential of our software
• Owning core performance engineering initiatives from architecture to production, focusing on the delivery of high-impact optimizations. Leading the technical design, plan, and execution for major architectural and code-level performance improvements
• Developing foundational performance models and methodologies for complex, distributed systems
• Driving optimization strategies to ensure Elasticsearch remains performant, predictable, and scalable in diverse environments
• Profiling and analyzing system behavior to identify bottlenecks in logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL
• Ensuring robust performance benchmarks and regression detection for both stateful and stateless (Serverless) architectures
• Collaborating across the company to embed performance-first thinking into new features from the outset
• Drive automation efforts by designing and building AI-assisted optimization harnesses that streamline profiling, hypothesis testing, and benchmarking
• Mentoring and coaching other engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and performance-aware development

Benefits

• Toast to your health: Fully paid health coverage for you and your family, in many locations.
• Craft your calendar: Flexible location and schedule for most roles.
• Create space for you: Distributed by design workforce, plus generous number of vacation days each year.
• Embrace parenthood: Minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave, plus generous family formation benefits.
• Give back your time: 40 hours each year to use toward volunteering with organizations and causes you’re passionate about.
• Amplify your impact: Double your charitable giving — we match donations up to $1500 USD (or local currency equivalent).

• You have a solid comprehension of distributed systems architecture, including partition tolerance, cluster state propagation, and scaling challenges in large-scale data stores
• You have a proven track record of using AI or advanced tooling to accelerate optimization, debug complex performance issues, and automate benchmarking workflows
• You can work autonomously, drive decisions and result in a distributed team by leveraging asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication
• You possess the ability to collaborate across functions and teams, acting as a force multiplier for performance engineering across the organization
• You have proven experience in profiling and optimizing distributed systems. This includes deep experience with benchmarking tools (e.g., flamegraphs, JMH, Rally), identifying performance regressions, and implementing algorithmic or hardware-aware optimizations
• You have deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management. You understand how concurrency models work. You can write code that is high-performance, thread-safe, and lock-free. This experience includes working with large open-source and enterprise codebases
• You possess the ability to collaborate across functions and teams and seamlessly transition between different projects, codebases, or teams based on business priorities
• Experience integrating high-performance native libraries (e.g., 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 and success criteria for distributed systems
• Experience working on the internals of a large-scale data store or search engine
• Experience working on the internals of a data store or search engine