Principal Software Engineer, Search Infra, Elasticsearch

Elastic

Confirmed live 2 days ago Trusted

Remote

Quick summary

Work type: Remote
Location: Remote
Salary: $159,800–$252,800 / yr
Posted: 22 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live 2 days ago

Market check

Salary context

Competitive pay

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $199k

This role $206k

$130k most similar roles pay here $266k

This role pays more than 50% of similar roles. Most pay $171,850–$225,500 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $206k versus about $199k for comparable roles.

Based on 240 similar postings.

Employer

About Elastic

Elastic is the company behind Elasticsearch and the Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, and Logstash). It sells search, observability, and security products built on that search engine, primarily through its Elastic Cloud managed service.

Elastic currently has 240 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $133,100–$210,600 across 91 roles with salary data.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Principal Software Engineer, Search Infra, Elasticsearch

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Principal Software Engineer - Search Infra - Elasticsearch joins the Search Infra team to provide technical vision and direction for core search infrastructure. This role involves defining, leading, and contributing to the evolution of indexing, retrieval, and relevance capabilities while researching advances in data structures and retrieval algorithms. The engineer will collaborate with partners and product teams to shape the long-term roadmap for the platform. Key responsibilities include mentoring expert engineers and managing projects from concept to completion. Required expertise includes high-performance software systems, distributed systems, and core Java with a focus on advanced data structures and concurrency constructs. Candidates should have hands-on experience with technologies such as Elasticsearch, Lucene, or Solr. The role addresses the technical challenge of building robust, scalable search foundations for processing large-scale data and improving the overall user experience within the search ecosystem.

What does a Software Engineer earn in Remote?

Median $204500 from 415 postings across 57 companies.

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Skills

Elasticsearch Lucene Java Solr Distributed Systems Data Structures Algorithms Open Source GitHub Source Control Search Infrastructure Information Retrieval Query Execution Indexing

What you'll do

Define and lead the evolution of core search and indexing capabilities.
Research advances in search infrastructure, data structures, and retrieval algorithms.
Develop a long-term technical vision for Elasticsearch's indexing, query execution, and relevance layers.
Serve as a subject matter expert to provide guidance on specific domains of search technology.
Build and optimize high-performance software using Java and advanced data structures.
Mentor other engineers by providing both technical and professional guidance.
Manage projects from initial concept through technical design to final completion.
Ensure all code contributions comply with secure software development frameworks and privacy policies.

What we're looking for

Experience leading technical projects in search infrastructure and distributed systems.
Experience mentoring expert engineers with technical and professional guidance.
Experience defining long-term technical vision for core search or retrieval systems across teams.
Hands-on experience with search and indexing technologies such as Elasticsearch, Lucene, or Solr.
Proficiency in core Java, advanced data structures, concurrency constructs, and modern language features like lambdas.
Ability to work autonomously from concept to completion including technical design and collaboration.
Experience with large-scale data systems or distributed storage engines.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills for collaborating across distributed teams.
Experience building with Elasticsearch and understanding search theory (preferred).
Experience with open source projects and familiar with various source control workflows and CI (preferred).