Senior Software Engineer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch

Elastic is a company that offers the Elastic Search AI Platform used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500, providing cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability focused on AI and data at scale.

• Deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management, including concurrency models and writing high-performance, thread-safe, lock-free code.
• Experience with profiling and optimizing distributed systems, including benchmarking tools such as JMH and Rally.
• Solid understanding of distributed systems architecture, including partition tolerance, cluster state propagation, and scaling challenges.
• Proven experience using AI or advanced tooling to accelerate optimization, debug performance issues, and automate benchmarking workflows.
• Ability to collaborate effectively within and across teams, adapting to multiple projects and codebases.
• Ability to work autonomously with distributed teams using asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication.

Bonus Points:

• Experience integrating high-performance native libraries such as C++, Rust, or SIMD-accelerated code into Java applications.
• Knowledge of modern storage engine performance, index modes, or vector search optimizations.
• Experience defining and managing Performance SLAs and success criteria for distributed systems.
• Experience working on internals of large-scale data stores or search engines.

• Contribute to core performance engineering initiatives from development to production, focusing on architectural and code-level performance improvements.
• Implement foundational performance models and methodologies for complex, distributed systems.
• Support optimization strategies to maintain Elasticsearch performance, predictability, and scalability.
• Profile and analyze system behavior to identify bottlenecks in logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL.
• Ensure robust performance benchmarks and regression detection for both stateful and stateless architectures.
• Collaborate with peers to integrate performance-focused development practices into new features.
• Develop AI-assisted optimization tools for profiling, hypothesis testing, and benchmarking.
• Provide technical guidance and peer reviews to engineers to foster technical excellence.

Applicants must comply with U.S. and international export control and licensing requirements; employment may require export license if located in or nationals of sanctioned countries/regions including Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Russia, or annexed Ukrainian territories.