Opportunity at
ElasticSenior Software Engineer - Performance Tuning - Elasticsearch
This full-time Senior Software Engineer role is on the Elasticsearch Performance team. The posting does not state a location, and the listing marks the role as…
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About This Role
This full-time Senior Software Engineer role is on the Elasticsearch Performance team. The posting does not state a location, and the listing marks the role as on-site. Elasticsearch is described as powering search, observability and AI retrieval for large organisations. The engineer contributes to performance engineering via strong code and technical investigation. Work includes carrying out designs for architectural and code-level speed improvements, building performance models for complex distributed systems…
Job Description
This full-time Senior Software Engineer role is on the Elasticsearch Performance team. The posting does not state a location, and the listing marks the role as on-site. Elasticsearch is described as powering search, observability and AI retrieval for large organisations.
The engineer contributes to performance engineering via strong code and technical investigation. Work includes carrying out designs for architectural and code-level speed improvements, building performance models for complex distributed systems and profiling logs, metrics pipelines, vector search and ES|QL to find bottlenecks. The role also covers benchmark design and regression detection across stateful and serverless deployments, and building AI-assisted tooling that speeds up profiling, hypothesis testing and benchmarking.
Engineers in the role provide technical guidance and peer reviews, and help apply performance-focused practices to new features with peers across the team. Strong experience with Java internals, JVM memory management and concurrency is expected, along with experience profiling and tuning distributed systems using tools such as JMH and Rally.
Pay is base salary only, with no variable component. The posting gives a typical starting range of 67,000 to 106,000 euros and says the final figure depends on experience, skills, role requirements and the scope of the position.
Responsibilities
- Deliver performance optimisations from development through to production
- Carry out technical designs for architectural and code-level performance gains
- Build performance models and methods for complex distributed systems
- Profile logs, metrics pipelines, vector search and ES|QL to find bottlenecks
- Maintain benchmarks and regression detection for stateful and serverless setups
- Build AI-assisted optimisation tools for profiling, testing hypotheses and benchmarking
- Provide coaching and code reviews for colleagues
Requirements
- A thorough grasp of the JVM and how it manages memory
- Understanding of concurrency models and ability to write thread-safe, high-performance code
- Experience profiling and optimising distributed systems
- Experience with benchmarking tools such as JMH and Rally
- Solid understanding of distributed architecture and scaling challenges
- Proven use of AI or advanced tooling to speed up optimisation and debugging
- Ability to collaborate within a team and across functions
Qualifications
- Experience integrating native libraries such as C++, Rust or SIMD-accelerated code into Java applications
- Knowledge of index-mode trade-offs and vector search tuning in storage engines
- Experience defining performance SLAs and success criteria
- Hands-on time inside the core code of a database or search product
Core Skills
Benefits
- 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 posting does not specify a location. The listing marks the role as on-site.
Is the role full-time?
Yes. The listing states full-time employment.
What is the salary range?
The posting gives a typical starting base salary range of 67,000 to 106,000 euros, with no variable pay component.
What technical skills are needed?
Deep Java internals knowledge, concurrency expertise and experience profiling distributed systems with tools such as JMH or Rally are needed.
Are there bonus points?
Native library integration, storage engine or vector search performance knowledge, and experience defining performance SLAs are listed as bonus points.
Sample Interview Questions
AI-generated questions tailored to this specific role — a preview of the full practice set.