Principal Software Engineer - Vector Search - Elasticsearch

ABOUT THE ROLE We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch - Search team at Elastic, the Search AI Company. This globally-distributed team of expert engineers focuses on delivering a robust and feature-rich search experience, including contributing to improving the search experience in Lucene. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will be responsible for enhancing the vector similarity search functionality within Elasticsearch, covering the design and implementation of new vector search features, enhancements to existing vector search functionality, and resolving bugs. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Lead initiatives within Elasticsearch to produce an industry-leading vector database offering, supplying unparalleled speed and relevance in search. - Contribute to Elasticsearch full time, building new search features and fixing intriguing bugs, all while making the code easier to understand. - Work with a globally distributed team of experienced engineers focused on the vector search capabilities of Elasticsearch. - Be an expert on how Elasticsearch implements vector similarity in support of search relevance and everyone will turn to you when they have a question about this area. - Work with community members from all over the world on issues and pull requests, sometimes triaging them and handing them off to other experts and sometimes handling them yourself. - Write idiomatic modern Java, as Elasticsearch is 99.8% Java. WHAT YOU'LL NEED - You have implemented novel techniques in vector similarity on a search platform with a large user base or progressed the field of academic research in vector similarity information retrieval. - Professional experience with vector similarity and vector databases, and you used HNSW, IVF, or other relevant algorithms and libraries on search platforms at scale. - Strong skills in core Java and are conversant in the standard library of data structures and concurrency constructs, as well as other features like lambdas. - Ability to work with a high level of autonomy, and are able to take on projects and guide them from beginning to end. - Comfortable developing collaboratively, giving and receiving feedback on code and approaches and APIs. - Experience with several data storage technologies like Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Cassandra. - Excellent verbal and written communication skills. WHY REMOTE Our company is distributed by intention. We hire the best engineers we can find wherever they are, whoever they are. We collaborate across continents every day over email, GitHub, Zoom, and Slack. BENEFITS - Competitive base salary, with a typical starting salary range of €80,400. - Transparent remuneration, with a compensation philosophy that aims to provide fair, competitive, and transparent remuneration. - Flexible schedule, allowing for remote work and collaboration across continents. - Opportunity to work with a globally distributed team of experienced engineers. - Empowerment to take on projects and guide them from beginning to end, with a high level of autonomy. - Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with a focus on respectful, empathetic, and trusting interactions.