Principal Software Developer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch

Elastic
Canada
Workplace: OnsiteFull timeCAD 154,000 - 243,600 annuallyFunction: Software EngineeringSkills: ["Collaboration","Autonomy","Mentoring","Performance analysis","Communication"]

Lead Elasticsearch performance engineering for search, observability, and AI retrieval (RAG). Own core performance initiatives from architecture to production, designing and executing high-impact optimizations across distributed systems. Build foundational performance models and drive benchmarking, regression detection, and bottleneck analysis across logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL. Develop AI-assisted optimization harnesses, collaborate across teams, and mentor engineers to embed performance-first thinking.

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FursaFursa
Elastic
Elastic
4 days ago

Principal Software Developer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch

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Last checked: 3 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Lead Elasticsearch performance engineering for search, observability, and AI retrieval (RAG). Own core performance initiatives from architecture to production, designing and executing high-impact optimizations across distributed systems. Build foundational performance models and drive benchmarking, regression detection, and bottleneck analysis across logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL. Develop AI-assisted optimization harnesses, collaborate across teams, and mentor engineers to embed performance-first thinking.
Location: Canada
Workplace: Onsite
Employment Type: Full time
Job Function: Software Engineering
Seniority: Mid level

Key Responsibilities

  • •Own Elasticsearch performance engineering initiatives from architecture through production delivery, focusing on high-impact optimizations.
  • •Lead technical design, planning, and execution for major architectural and code-level performance improvements.
  • •Develop performance models and methodologies for complex distributed systems and use profiling to identify bottlenecks across logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL.
  • •Ensure robust performance benchmarks and regression detection for both stateful and stateless (Serverless) architectures.
  • •Build AI-assisted optimization harnesses to streamline profiling, hypothesis testing, and benchmarking, and mentor other engineers.

Pay and Benefits

Salary: CAD 154,000 - 243,600 annually
Equity and Bonus:Equity
Perks:Health InsuranceEquityRetirement SavingsParental LeavePaid LeaveVolunteer Time

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, including benchmarking with tools like flamegraphs, JMH, and Rally, and addressing performance regressions.
  • •Strong understanding of distributed systems architecture (e.g., partition tolerance, cluster state propagation, scaling challenges) in large-scale data stores.
  • •Track record using AI or advanced tooling to accelerate optimization, debug complex performance issues, and automate benchmarking workflows.
  • •Ability to collaborate across teams and mentor/coaching engineers while driving autonomous decisions in a distributed environment.
Experience:Distributed systemsOpen sourceEnterprise softwareSearch engine
Skills:CollaborationAutonomyMentoringPerformance analysisCommunication
Languages:English
Tech Stack:JavaJVMJMHFlamegraphsRallyElasticsearchES|QLVector searchServerlessC++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