Senior Software Engineer - Storage Engine - Elasticsearch

ABOUT THE ROLE Elastic is a leading Search AI Company that empowers organisations to unlock the value of all their data in real time. As a Senior Software Engineer on the Elasticsearch Storage Engine team, you will shape the core storage and query infrastructure that powers observability workloads for millions of customers worldwide. Working within a globally distributed, fully remote team, you will drive architectural evolution, optimise storage efficiency, and advance query performance for logs and metrics data at scale. Your contributions will directly influence the reliability, speed, and cost‑effectiveness of the platform that underpins Elastic’s search, security, and observability solutions. WHAT YOU'LL DO You will lead the design and implementation of next‑generation storage engine components, identifying and eliminating performance bottlenecks in indexing layouts, serialization formats, and resource utilisation. You will collaborate with cross‑functional teams to deliver industry‑leading observability features, translating business priorities into robust, scalable code. You will champion clean coding standards and system‑wide best practices, demystifying complex behaviours and simplifying architectural complexity across the platform. You will act as a subject‑matter expert, mentoring peers and providing technical guidance to the wider engineering organisation. You will engage with the global community to triage, resolve, and review issues and pull requests, ensuring high quality and timely delivery. You will write idiomatic, modern Java, leveraging Elastic’s 99.8% Java codebase to build performant, maintainable solutions. WHAT YOU'LL NEED You have a proven track record of building high‑performance, scalable database, search, or distributed systems, with deep expertise in storage, indexing, query execution, and performance optimisation. You possess strong core Java skills, a deep understanding of concurrency primitives, and experience designing efficient data structures and algorithms. You have implemented novel techniques for indexing, storing, and querying time‑series or logs data, and you are familiar with storage technologies such as Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Prometheus. You thrive in a distributed environment, making autonomous decisions and communicating effectively through asynchronous channels. You bring a prompt‑engineering mindset, leveraging AI to accelerate development while maintaining rigorous validation and ownership of outcomes. You excel in collaborative discussions, respect diverse perspectives, and consistently deliver high‑quality code. WHY REMOTE Elastic’s distributed culture is intentional; we hire the best talent wherever they are and empower engineers to work independently while collaborating across continents. Our remote model supports flexible schedules that accommodate different time zones, allowing teams to focus on deep work during core hours and maintain a healthy work‑life balance. Communication flows seamlessly through email, GitHub, Zoom, and Slack, fostering a culture of transparency, accountability, and rapid iteration. By removing geographical constraints, we tap into a global pool of expertise, accelerate innovation, and create a more inclusive, dynamic engineering community. BENEFITS Elastic offers a competitive benefits package that includes comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage; a generous paid time off policy; a remote work stipend to support home‑office setup; a learning and development budget for courses, conferences, and certifications; and a flexible retirement savings plan. Additional perks include wellness programs, parental leave, and access to a global network of Elastic employees for knowledge sharing and mentorship.