Principal Software Engineer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch

Elastic
Ireland
Workplace: OnsiteFull timeEUR 104,800 - 165,700 annuallyFunction: Software EngineeringSkills: ["High-performance engineering","Profiling","Benchmarking","Regression detection","Mentoring"]

Lead performance engineering for Elasticsearch, owning initiatives from architecture through production to optimize predictability and scalability. Drive technical design and execution of major architectural and code-level improvements, build performance models for distributed systems, and profile bottlenecks across logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL. Establish benchmarks and regression detection for stateful and serverless architectures, automate optimization harnesses, and mentor engineers to embed performance-first thinking across teams.

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FursaFursa
Elastic
Elastic
4 days ago

Principal Software Engineer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch

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Last checked: 3 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Lead performance engineering for Elasticsearch, owning initiatives from architecture through production to optimize predictability and scalability. Drive technical design and execution of major architectural and code-level improvements, build performance models for distributed systems, and profile bottlenecks across logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL. Establish benchmarks and regression detection for stateful and serverless architectures, automate optimization harnesses, and mentor engineers to embed performance-first thinking across teams.
Location: Ireland
Workplace: Onsite
Employment Type: Full time
Job Function: Software Engineering
Seniority: Mid level

Key Responsibilities

  • •Own core performance engineering initiatives end-to-end, from architecture to production, focusing on high-impact optimizations.
  • •Lead technical design, planning, and execution for major performance improvements in Elasticsearch.
  • •Develop foundational performance models and methodologies for complex distributed systems.
  • •Profile and analyze system behavior to identify bottlenecks across logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL.
  • •Create robust performance benchmarks and regression detection for both stateful and serverless architectures, including automation for profiling and hypothesis testing.

Pay and Benefits

Salary: EUR 104,800 - 165,700 annually
Perks:Health InsurancePaid LeaveParental LeaveVolunteer Time

Key Requirements

  • •Deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management, with the ability to write high-performance, thread-safe, lock-free code.
  • •Proven experience profiling and optimizing distributed systems, including benchmarking and regression detection using tools such as flamegraphs, JMH, and Rally.
  • •Solid understanding of distributed systems architecture (e.g., cluster state propagation, scaling challenges, partition tolerance) for large-scale data stores.
  • •Experience using AI or advanced tooling to accelerate optimization, debug complex performance issues, and automate benchmarking workflows.
  • •Ability to collaborate across teams autonomously and mentor/coaching engineers, acting as a performance engineering force multiplier across the organization.
Experience:Distributed systemsOpen sourceEnterprise softwareSearchData stores
Skills:High-performance engineeringProfilingBenchmarkingRegression detectionMentoring
Tech Stack:JavaJVMJMHFlamegraphsRallyC++RustSIMDVector searchES|QLServerlessAIRAG

Company Brief

Elastic
Builds the Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, Logstash) and provides search, observability, and security solutions that enable organizations to search, analyze, and protect data in real time across applications, infrastructure, and enterprises.
Industry: Data Infrastructure
Company Size: Enterprise (1,001+ employees)
Revenue: USD 1B+
Growth: Public Company
Valuation: Public Company (Market Cap in USD)
Funding: IPO / Publicly Listed
Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Founded: 2012
WebsiteLinkedIn