Principal Software Engineer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch

The role

You will lead architectural and code-level performance engineering initiatives for Elasticsearch. You will drive optimization, develop performance models, and profile system behavior to ensure scalability and predictability.

What you will do

• Own core performance engineering initiatives from architecture to production.
• Lead technical design, plan, and execution for major performance improvements.
• Develop foundational performance models and methodologies for complex, distributed systems.
• Drive optimization strategies for Elasticsearch performance and scalability.
• Profile and analyze system behavior to identify bottlenecks.
• Ensure robust performance benchmarks and regression detection.
• Collaborate across the company to embed performance-first thinking into new features.
• Design and build AI-assisted optimization harnesses.
• Mentor and coach other engineers.

Required qualifications

• Deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management.
• Understanding of concurrency models.
• Ability to write high-performance, thread-safe, and lock-free code.
• Experience working with large open-source and enterprise codebases.
• Proven experience in profiling and optimizing distributed systems.
• Experience with benchmarking tools such as flamegraphs, JMH, or Rally.
• Experience identifying performance regressions and implementing optimizations.
• Solid comprehension of distributed systems architecture.
• Proven track record of using AI or advanced tooling to accelerate optimization and automate workflows.
• Ability to collaborate across functions and teams.
• Ability to transition between different projects, codebases, or teams.
• Ability to work autonomously in a distributed team using asynchronous communication.

Nice to have

• 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.

Benefits

• Base salary
• Stock program eligibility
• Company-matched 401k up to 6% of eligible earnings
• Health coverage for you and your family in many locations
• Flexible locations and schedules for many roles
• Generous number of vacation days each year
• Match up to $2000 for financial donations and service
• Up to 40 hours each year to use toward volunteer projects
• Minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave

Before you apply

• An export license may be required if you are located in or are a national of Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, the Crimea Region of Ukraine, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), or the

About the company

Elastic is the Search AI Company that enables finding answers in real time using all data at scale. The Elastic Search AI Platform is used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500.