
Opportunity at
ElasticPrincipal Software Engineer I - Serverless - Platform Control Plane
This full-time Principal Software Engineer I role is on the Serverless Control Plane team in the United States and is listed as on-site. The team builds…
Career Tools
About This Role
This full-time Principal Software Engineer I role is on the Serverless Control Plane team in the United States and is listed as on-site. The team builds and runs the orchestration layer underpinning Elastic Cloud Serverless, a fully managed, stateless offering that splits compute from storage and grows with demand. The team also owns Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK). The engineer sets technical steering for large efforts across the control plane,…
Job Description
This full-time Principal Software Engineer I role is on the Serverless Control Plane team in the United States and is listed as on-site. The team builds and runs the orchestration layer underpinning Elastic Cloud Serverless, a fully managed, stateless offering that splits compute from storage and grows with demand. The team also owns Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK).
The engineer sets technical steering for large efforts across the control plane, from proposal through general availability. Responsibilities include designing and building the distributed services that provision, tune, grow and retire Serverless projects across AWS, GCP and Azure. The role leads multi-quarter projects that depend on groups like Elasticsearch and Kibana, leads complex incident reviews and takes part in an on-call rotation.
The job also involves mentoring engineers, advising product management on trade-offs and feasibility, and flagging security, stability and cost improvements early. The team's stack is Kubernetes, Go and cloud-native architecture.
The posting asks for more than eight years of experience building software, with prior work at Staff or Principal level on distributed systems in production. Deep Kubernetes expertise, proficiency in Go and practical experience with one major cloud provider are required. Experience running high-availability SaaS platforms and improving reliability over time is also expected. Pay is base salary only, with no variable component. The typical starting range is $159,800 to $252,800 USD, or $191,900 to $303,500 USD in select locations. Stock program eligibility and a company-matched 401k are also described.
Responsibilities
- Set technical steering on large efforts spanning the Serverless control plane
- Lead multi-quarter projects that depend on Elasticsearch, Kibana and other teams
- Design, build and evolve distributed systems that orchestrate Serverless projects across cloud providers
- Run in-depth incident analyses and postmortems and take part in on-call
- Mentor engineers and raise the team's technical judgement
- Advise product management on trade-offs, feasibility and roadmap direction
- Identify and push for gains in security, reliability and spend efficiency
Requirements
- Eight or more years of software experience, with Staff or Principal level scope on production distributed systems
- Strong Kubernetes knowledge and experience with cloud-native design
- Proficiency in Go
- Practical work with one major cloud provider: AWS, GCP or Azure
- Experience operating high-availability SaaS platforms and responding to incidents
- Ability to work autonomously and drive decisions in a distributed team
- Clear communication and the ability to influence without formal authority
Qualifications
- Background in FedRAMP or similarly regulated environments
- Working familiarity with Elastic Stack products
- Experience with Kubernetes operators, including ECK
Core Skills
Benefits
- Eligibility for Elastic's stock program
- Company 401k match, dollar for dollar on eligible earnings up to 6 percent
- Competitive pay set by the work performed, not by previous salary
- Health coverage for employees and their families in many locations
- Scheduling and location flexibility for many roles
- Generous annual vacation allowance
- Company match of up to $2,000 (or local equivalent) for donations and service
- Up to 40 hours a year available for volunteer work
- At least 16 weeks of parental leave
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers are based only on the employer’s listing; where it doesn’t say, neither do we.
Where is this role based?
The listing gives the United States as the location and marks the role as on-site.
What is the salary range?
The posting gives a typical starting base salary range of $159,800 to $252,800 USD, or $191,900 to $303,500 USD in select locations. Base salary is the only form of pay, with no variable component.
What core skills are needed?
Deep Kubernetes and cloud-native architecture experience, proficiency in Go, and hands-on work with AWS, GCP or Azure are needed.
Is there an on-call requirement?
Yes. The role includes taking part in an on-call rotation to handle operational events.
Is equity offered?
The posting says the role is eligible for Elastic's stock program, in addition to cash compensation.
Sample Interview Questions
AI-generated questions tailored to this specific role — a preview of the full practice set.