Senior Software Engineer - Query Engine, Database Internals - Elasticsearch

Role

Elastic is hiring a Senior Software Engineer for its Elasticsearch Analytical Engine team in the United States. This globally distributed, fully remote team builds analytics capabilities in Elasticsearch's aggregation framework using a new compute engine and the ES|QL piped query language.

The role involves designing and implementing features, enhancing existing capabilities, and fixing bugs. Engineers collaborate across continents, review every code change, make major decisions by consensus, and pursue incremental improvements.

Responsibilities

• Contribute full-time to Elasticsearch, building data-intensive features, resolving complex bugs, and improving code clarity.
• Research and implement efficient data structures and algorithms, working close to operating systems and hardware when necessary.
• Develop search and ES|QL analytics capabilities with a globally distributed engineering team.
• Collaborate with UI teams and teams building solutions on Elasticsearch APIs.
• Become an expert in several Elasticsearch areas and drive improvements.
• Work with community members on issues and pull requests, triaging or resolving them as appropriate.
• Write idiomatic modern Java.

Qualifications

• Strong core Java skills, including standard-library data structures, concurrency constructs, and newer features such as lambdas.
• Experience with software systems engineering.
• Strong interest in optimization and efficient data structures and algorithms.
• Ability to work autonomously and guide projects from technical design through completion, collaborating with engineers on required components.
• Comfort giving and receiving feedback on code, approaches, and APIs.
• Experience using several data storage technologies, such as Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Cassandra, with an understanding of how and why they work.
• Excellent verbal and written communication, with respectful, empathetic, and trusting interactions.
• Proven experience using AI to accelerate development, debug complex systems, and optimize code while retaining ownership of outcomes.
• Ability to collaborate across functions and adapt to different projects, codebases, or teams as priorities change.
• Ability to drive decisions and results through asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience collaborating online, especially asynchronously.
• Experience building with Elasticsearch.
• Experience in search and information retrieval, including relevant data structures and algorithms.
• Experience developing data storage technology or data analytics capabilities.
• Experience designing, leading, and owning cross-functional initiatives.
• Open-source project experience and familiarity with source-control workflows and continuous integration.

Compensation and Benefits

• Typical annual starting base salary: $133,100–$210,600 USD.
• Alternate annual starting range for select locations, including Seattle, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the New York City Metro Area: $159,900–$252,900 USD.
• No variable compensation component.
• Eligible to participate in Elastic's stock program.
• Company-matched 401(k), with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 6% of eligible earnings.
• Benefits vary by region and include health coverage for employees and families in many locations, flexible locations and schedules for many roles, generous vacation, donation and service matching up to $2,000 or local equivalent, up to 40 volunteer hours annually, and at least 16 weeks of parental leave.

Application and Employment Information

• Recruiting accommodations can be requested at candidate_accessibility@elastic.co; Elastic states it will respond within 24 business hours.
• An export license may be required as a condition of employment for individuals located in or nationals of Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Russia, or the listed Russian-annexed Ukrainian territories: Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. National origin or nationality does not affect employment eligibility.