Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find the answers they need in real time, using all their data, at scale — unleashing the potential of businesses and people. By taking advantage of all structured and unstructured data — securing and protecting private information more effectively — Elastic’s complete, cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability help organizations deliver on the promise of AI.We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch Performance team. In this role, you will lead architectural and code-level performance engineering initiatives.

Your goal is to drive the continuous optimization and predictability of Elasticsearch performance, partnering with area-specific teams to unlock the full potential of our software.What You Will Be DoingOwning core performance engineering initiatives from architecture to production, focusing on the delivery of high-impact optimizations. Leading the technical design, plan, and execution for major architectural and code-level performance improvements.Developing foundational performance models and methodologies for complex, distributed systems.Driving optimization strategies to ensure Elasticsearch remains performant, predictable, and scalable in diverse environments.Ensuring robust performance benchmarks and regression detection for both stateful and stateless (Serverless) architectures.Collaborating across the company to embed performance-first thinking into new features from the outset.Drive automation efforts by designing and building AI-assisted optimization harnesses that streamline profiling, hypothesis testing, and benchmarking.Mentoring and coaching other engineers,



fostering a culture of technical excellence and performance-aware development.What You BringYou have deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management. You can write code that is high-performance, thread-safe, and lock-free. flamegraphs, JMH, Rally), identifying performance regressions, and implementing algorithmic or hardware-aware optimizations.You have a solid comprehension of distributed systems architecture, including partition tolerance, cluster state propagation, and scaling challenges in large-scale data stores.You have a proven track record of using AI or advanced tooling to accelerate optimization, debug complex performance issues, and automate benchmarking workflows.You possess the ability to collaborate across functions and teams, acting as a force multiplier for performance engineering across the organization.You possess the ability to collaborate across functions and teams and seamlessly transition between different projects, codebases, or teams based on business prioritiesYou can work autonomously, drive decisions and result in a distributed team by leveraging asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication.Bonus PointsExperience integrating high-performance native libraries (e.g., C++, Rust, SIMD-accelerated code) into Java applications.Deep 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 the internals of a large-scale data store or search engine.Experience working on the internals of a data store or search engine.It doesn’t matter if you’re just out of college or your children are; Competitive pay based on the work you do here and not your previous salaryHealth coverage for you and your family in many locationsAbility to craft your calendar with adaptable locations and schedules for many rolesGenerous number of vacation days each yearIncrease your impact - We match up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent) for financial donations and serviceUp to 40 hours each year to use toward volunteer projects you loveEmbracing parenthood with minimum of 16 weeks of parental leaveDifferent people approach problems differently.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law, ordinance or regulation.Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)Poster and Know Your Rights (Poster)Elasticsearch develops and distributes technology and information that is subject to U.Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, or Russia, including the Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia (The Crimea region of Ukraine, The Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), The Luhansk People's Republic (LNR), Kherson or Zaporizhzhia).

📌 Principal Software Engineer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch (Madrid)
🏢 Elastic
📍 Madrid