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 in logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL.
• 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 benchmarking.
• 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

• Competitive pay based on the work you do here and not your previous salary
• Health coverage for you and your family in many locations
• Ability to craft your calendar with flexible locations and schedules for many roles
• Generous number of vacation days each year
• Match up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent) 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 sanctioned countries or regions including Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, the Crimea Region of Ukraine, th

About the company

Elastic, the Search AI Company, provides cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability. The Elastic Search AI Platform is used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500.