Principal Software Engineer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch

Elastic
Spain
Full timeEUR 80,400 - 127,200Function: Software EngineeringSkills: ["Collaboration","Autonomy","Mentoring","Performance optimization","Technical leadership"]

Lead Elasticsearch performance engineering initiatives across architecture and production, driving major high-impact optimizations for stateful and serverless architectures. Build performance models and methodologies for complex distributed systems, profile and analyze bottlenecks across logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL, and establish robust benchmarks with regression detection. Partner across teams to embed performance-first thinking and build AI-assisted optimization harnesses while mentoring other engineers.

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FursaFursa
Elastic
Elastic
4 days ago

Principal Software Engineer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch

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Source: Company careers pageValidated by: Fursa AI
Last checked: 3 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Lead Elasticsearch performance engineering initiatives across architecture and production, driving major high-impact optimizations for stateful and serverless architectures. Build performance models and methodologies for complex distributed systems, profile and analyze bottlenecks across logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL, and establish robust benchmarks with regression detection. Partner across teams to embed performance-first thinking and build AI-assisted optimization harnesses while mentoring other engineers.
Location: Spain
Employment Type: Full time
Job Function: Software Engineering
Seniority: Mid level

Key Responsibilities

  • •Own core performance engineering initiatives from architecture through production, delivering high-impact optimizations.
  • •Lead technical design, planning, and execution for major architectural and code-level performance improvements.
  • •Develop foundational performance models and methodologies for complex distributed systems.
  • •Drive optimization strategies to keep Elasticsearch performant, predictable, and scalable across diverse environments.
  • •Profile and analyze system behavior to identify bottlenecks in logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL, and ensure robust benchmarks and regression detection.

Pay and Benefits

Salary: EUR 80,400 - 127,200
Perks:Health InsurancePaid LeaveParental LeaveVolunteer Hours

Key Requirements

  • •Deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management, including concurrency models and writing high-performance, thread-safe, lock-free code.
  • •Proven experience profiling and optimizing distributed systems, using benchmarking tools such as flamegraphs, JMH, and Rally, and identifying/mitigating performance regressions.
  • •Strong understanding of distributed systems architecture, including partition tolerance, cluster state propagation, and scaling challenges in 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 and work autonomously in a distributed environment, driving decisions and results.
Experience:Distributed systemsOpen sourceEnterprise software
Skills:CollaborationAutonomyMentoringPerformance optimizationTechnical leadership
Tech Stack:JavaJVMJMHRallyFlamegraphsAIVector searchES|QLServerlessC++RustSIMD

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