Principal Software Engineer - Storage Engine - Elasticsearch

ABOUT THE ROLE Elastic is a global leader in Search AI, powering more than half of the Fortune 500 with real‑time, AI‑enhanced search, security, and observability solutions. As a Principal Software Engineer on the Elasticsearch Storage Engine team, you will shape the core storage and query technologies that underpin our observability workloads. Your work will directly influence how efficiently logs and metrics are indexed, stored, and queried at scale, enabling customers to unlock insights from their data faster and more cost‑effectively. In this role you will collaborate with engineers across continents, drive architectural decisions, and mentor the next generation of high‑performance search engineers. WHAT YOU'LL DO You will lead the evolution of core storage engine components, identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks in indexing layouts, serialization formats, and resource utilization. You will spearhead cross‑organizational initiatives that deliver industry‑leading observability capabilities, coordinating with product, data, and infrastructure teams to align technical direction with business goals. You will champion best practices for clean code, system observability, and architectural clarity, ensuring that the platform remains maintainable as it scales. You will act as a subject‑matter expert, providing guidance and mentorship across the engineering organization, and you will actively triage, review, and resolve issues and pull requests in a distributed environment. Your contributions will be expressed through idiomatic, high‑quality Java code that drives performance and reliability. WHAT YOU'LL NEED You have a proven track record designing high‑performance, scalable database or search engine systems, with deep expertise in Java concurrency, data structures, and algorithms. You bring experience with time‑series or log data storage, having implemented novel indexing or compression techniques that improve throughput and reduce storage costs. You are comfortable working autonomously in a distributed team, making decisions through asynchronous communication and transparent documentation. You possess strong verbal and written communication skills, able to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders. You have a history of leading cross‑functional initiatives, driving architectural change, and mentoring peers. Experience with Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Prometheus is highly desirable, as is familiarity with open‑source workflows and continuous integration practices. WHY REMOTE Elastic’s culture is intentionally distributed, allowing talented engineers to work from anywhere while collaborating across time zones through email, GitHub, Zoom, and Slack. The asynchronous nature of our communication encourages thoughtful, high‑quality contributions and eliminates the need for rigid meeting schedules. Our remote model provides flexibility for engineers to design work schedules that fit their personal and professional lives, fostering a healthy work‑life balance. By empowering individuals to own their work, we create an environment where innovation thrives, and every team member can focus on delivering value without geographic constraints. BENEFITS Elastic offers comprehensive health coverage, generous paid time off, a remote work stipend, and a learning budget to support continuous skill development. Competitive base salaries reflect the expertise required for this senior role, and the company provides a supportive, inclusive culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion.