{"id":583911,"url":"https://alion.io/job/elastic-dev-principal-software-engineer-performance-tuning-elasticsearch","title":"Principal Software Engineer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch","company":{"id":4819,"name":"Elastic","domain":"elastic.co","url":"https://alion.io/company/elastic","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":77,"open_postings":44,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.932,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":38,"computed_at":"2026-10-06T05:45:30Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":159800,"max":252800,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":252800},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"ElasticSearch","optional":false},{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"RAG","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":true},{"name":"Rust","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-18T10:19:44Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-11","last_verified_at":"2026-10-06T19:18:20Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":49,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":49},"description":"Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find the answers they need in real time, using all their data, at scale - unleashing the potential of businesses and people. 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 to enable everyone to accelerate the results that matter. By taking advantage of all structured and unstructured data - securing and protecting private information more effectively - Elastic’s complete, cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability help organizations deliver on the promise of AI.\nWhat is The Role\nElasticsearch 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.\nWhat You Will Be Doing\nOwning 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.\nDeveloping foundational performance models and methodologies for complex, distributed systems.\nDriving optimization strategies to ensure Elasticsearch remains performant, predictable, and scalable in diverse environments.\nProfiling and analyzing system behavior to identify bottlenecks in logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL.\nEnsuring robust performance benchmarks and regression detection for both stateful and stateless (Serverless) architectures.\nCollaborating across the company to embed performance-first thinking into new features from the outset.\nDrive automation efforts by designing and building AI-assisted optimization harnesses that streamline profiling, hypothesis testing, and benchmarking.\nMentoring and coaching other engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and performance-aware development.\nWhat You Bring\nYou 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.\nYou 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.\nYou have a solid comprehension of distributed systems architecture, including partition tolerance, cluster state propagation, and scaling challenges in large-scale data stores.\nYou have a proven track record of using AI or advanced tooling to accelerate optimization, debug complex performance issues, and automate benchmarking workflows.\nYou possess the ability to collaborate across functions and teams, acting as a force multiplier for performance engineering across the organization.\nYou possess the ability to collaborate across functions and teams and seamlessly transition between different projects, codebases, or teams based on business priorities\nYou can work autonomously, drive decisions and result in a distributed team by leveraging asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication.\nBonus Points\nExperience integrating high-performance native libraries (e.g., C++, Rust, SIMD-accelerated code) into Java applications.\nDeep knowledge of modern storage engine performance, index modes, or vector search optimizations.\nExperience defining and managing Performance SLAs and success criteria for distributed systems.\nExperience working on the internals of a large-scale data store or search engine.\nExperience working on the internals of a data store or search engine.\nCompensation for this role is in the form of base salary. This role does not have a variable compensation component. \nThe typical starting salary range for new hires in this role is listed below. In select locations (including Seattle WA, Los Angeles CA, the San Francisco Bay Area CA, and the New York City Metro Area), an alternate range may apply as specified below. \nThese ranges represent the lowest to highest salary we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the ranges may be modified in the future. \nAn employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.\nElastic believes that employees should have the opportunity to share in the value that we create together for our shareholders. Therefore, in addition to cash compensation, this role is currently eligible to participate in Elastic's stock program. Our total rewards package also includes a company-matched 401k with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 6% of eligible earnings, along with a range of other benefits offered with a holistic emphasis on employee well-being.\nThe typical starting salary range for this role is:\n$159,800—$252,800 USD\nThe typical starting salary range for this role in the select locations listed above is:\n$191,900—$303,500 USD\nAdditional Information - We Take Care of Our People\nAs a distributed company, diversity drives our identity. Whether you’re looking to launch a new career or grow an existing one, Elastic is the type of company where you can balance great work with great life. Your age is only a number. It doesn’t matter if you’re just out of college or your children are; we need you for what you can do.\nWe strive to have parity of benefits across regions and while regulations differ from place to place, we believe taking care of our people is the right thing to do.\nCompetitive pay based on the work you do here and not your previous salary\nHealth coverage for you and your family in many locations\nAbility to craft your calendar with flexible locations and schedules for many roles\nGenerous number of vacation days each year\nIncrease your impact - We match up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent) for financial donations and service\nUp to 40 hours each year to use toward volunteer projects you love\nEmbracing parenthood with minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave\nDifferent people approach problems differently. We need that. Elastic is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive culture that celebrates different perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law, ordinance or regulation.\nWe welcome individuals with disabilities and strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all individuals. To request an accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please email . We will reply to your request within 24 business hours of submission.\nApplicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws, view posters linked below: Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Poster; Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision Poster; Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) Poster and Know Your Rights (Poster)\nElasticsearch develops and distributes technology and information that is subject to U.S. and other countries’ export controls and licensing requirements for individuals who are located in or are nationals of the following sanctioned countries and regions: Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, or Russia, including the Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia (The Crimea region of Ukraine, The Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), The Luhansk People's Republic (LNR), Kherson or Zaporizhzhia). If you are located in or are a national of one of the listed countries or regions, an export license may be required as a condition of your employment in this role. Please note that national origin and/or nationality do not affect eligibility for employment with Elastic.\nPlease see here for our Privacy Statement.","description_format":"text","description_chars":8596,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Belarus","iso":"BY","kind":"country"},{"name":"Cuba","iso":"CU","kind":"country"},{"name":"Iran","iso":"IR","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Log Management & Analytics","Security Operations","Observability & APM"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-10T00:59:52Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":21,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.486,"p_room":0.44,"age_days":48,"expected_fill_days":38,"reasons":["conf:0","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-06T05:45:30Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":252800,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/elastic-dev-principal-software-engineer-performance-tuning-elasticsearch","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/elastic-dev-principal-software-engineer-performance-tuning-elasticsearch.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-06T21:23:24Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":889,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":4111,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-07T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":4819},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=4819"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Felastic-dev-principal-software-engineer-performance-tuning-elasticsearch"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Felastic-dev-principal-software-engineer-performance-tuning-elasticsearch"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Felastic-dev-principal-software-engineer-performance-tuning-elasticsearch"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/elastic-dev-principal-software-engineer-performance-tuning-elasticsearch\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Felastic-dev-principal-software-engineer-performance-tuning-elasticsearch"}]}