Elasticsearch - Principal Software Engineer (Performance Engineering)

Elastic is a free and open search company that powers enterprise search, observability, and security solutions built on one technology stack that can be deployed anywhere. From finding documents to monitoring infrastructure to hunting for threats, Elastic makes data usable in real-time and at scale. Thousands of organizations worldwide, including Barclays, Cisco, eBay, Fairfax, ING, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, The Mayo Clinic, NASA, The New York Times, Wikipedia, and Verizon, use Elastic to power mission-critical systems. Founded in 2012, Elastic is a distributed company with Elasticians around the globe. Learn more at elastic.co.

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join our Elasticsearch Performance Engineering team with a focus on architecting and developing the automated tooling for benchmarking Elasticsearch ingest and search workloads at scale in the cloud.

What you will be doing

• Design and building of tooling and automated processes for provisioning and execution of Elasticsearch performance benchmarking jobs at scale.
• Defining best practices, methodologies, and guidelines for performance benchmarking   servicing development teams and solution architects.
• Developing reporting for and interpreting benchmarking results.
• Investigate and assist in resolving performance escalations and capacity planning issues as required.
• Address and devise solutions for benchmarking disparate use cases and workloads.
• Play a lead role in cross-functional team efforts and engagements.
• Mentoring and advising team members on proposed technical solutions. 

What you will bring along

• Software development experience with Python required. 
• Prior experience in the troubleshooting and root cause analysis of performance issues in complex distributed architectures.
• Cloud orchestration with Kubernetes. 
• Experience in cloud architectures, service models, and operating across multiple cloud service providers,  assessing tradeoffs from both performance and deployment perspectives.
• Ability to multitask, effectively manage your time, and collaborate with team members globally across time zones.
• Familiarity with measuring performance and sizing in Linux VM and container environments. 
• Experience with performance tuning of Java applications and JVMs.

Bonus points

• Prior experience with large, distributed search engines and in developing and tuning queries.
• Prior experience with CI/CD pipelines and Buildkite.
• Familiarity with the Elasticsearch Query API and building Kibana dashboards is a strong plus.

Compensation for this role is in the form of base salary.  This role does not have a variable compensation component.  

The typical starting salary range for new hires in this role is listed below.  In select locations (including Seattle WA, Los Angeles CA, the San Francisco Bay Area CA, and the New York City Metro Area), an alternate range may apply as specified below. 

These ranges represent the lowest to highest salary we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting.  We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the ranges may be modified in the future.  

An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.

Elastic believes that employees should have the opportunity to share in the value that we create together for our shareholders. Therefore, in addition to cash compensation, this role is currently eligible to participate in Elastic's stock program.  Our total rewards package also includes a company-matched 401k with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 6% of eligible earnings, along with a range of other benefits offered with a holistic emphasis on employee well-being.

The typical starting salary range for this role is:$152,200—$240,695 USDThe typical starting salary range for this role in the select locations listed above is:$152,200—$240,695 USD

Additional Information - We Take Care of Our People

As a distributed company, diversity drives our identity. Whether you’re looking to launch a new career or grow an existing one, Elastic is the type of company where you can balance great work with great life. Your age is only a number. It doesn’t matter if you’re just out of college or your children are; we need you for what you can do.

We strive to have parity of benefits across re