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ElasticPrincipal Software Engineer - Search Infra - Elasticsearch
This full-time Principal Software Engineer role is on the Elasticsearch Search Infra team and is listed as on-site in the United States. The team is made…
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About This Role
This full-time Principal Software Engineer role is on the Elasticsearch Search Infra team and is listed as on-site in the United States. The team is made up of experienced engineers spread across continents, and it works to deliver a strong, feature-rich search experience, including improvements to search in Lucene. The engineer sets the the technical roadmap and steering for core search infrastructure, covering indexing, retrieval and relevance. Work involves researching…
Job Description
This full-time Principal Software Engineer role is on the Elasticsearch Search Infra team and is listed as on-site in the United States. The team is made up of experienced engineers spread across continents, and it works to deliver a strong, feature-rich search experience, including improvements to search in Lucene.
The engineer sets the the technical roadmap and steering for core search infrastructure, covering indexing, retrieval and relevance. Work involves researching advances in data structures and retrieval algorithms, turning a long-term search roadmap into concrete engineering, and working with partners and product teams to learn about what they need. The role is also expected to become the go-to reference point across multiple Elasticsearch areas.
Suitable candidates have led technical projects in search infrastructure or distributed systems, can mentor expert engineers and have defined a multi-year plan for a search or retrieval engine at the core. Hands-on experience with Elasticsearch, Lucene or Solr and strong core Java skills, including concurrency and newer language features such as lambdas, are needed. Clear communication and a supportive attitude toward colleagues across distributed teams are also listed. The role is listed as on-site in the United States, and the team is spread across several continents.
Responsibilities
- Set the technical roadmap and steering for indexing, retrieval and relevance in core search infrastructure
- Define, lead and build the next wave of Elasticsearch search capabilities
- Study recent progress in search infrastructure, its data structures and retrieval methods
- Turn the long-term search roadmap into engineering plans
- Work with partners and product teams to learn about their search needs
- Serve as the go-to expert across multiple Elasticsearch areas
Requirements
- Experience leading technical projects in search infrastructure or distributed systems
- Proven ability to build and operate sophisticated search platforms
- Experience mentoring expert engineers with technical and professional guidance
- Experience defining a multi-year technical plan for a search or retrieval engine at the core
- Hands-on experience with Elasticsearch, Lucene or Solr
- Strong core Java skills, including concurrency and newer language features
- High autonomy in taking projects from concept to completion
- Excellent verbal and written communication
Qualifications
- Background in large-scale data or search platforms and distributed storage engines
- Experience with open source projects and common source control and CI practices
- Prior experience building with Elasticsearch
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 listing gives the United States as the location and marks the role as on-site.
Is the role full-time?
Yes. The listing states full-time employment.
What technical skills are needed?
Strong core Java, working fluency with sophisticated data structures and parallelism, and hands-on work with Elasticsearch, Lucene or Solr are required.
Is a salary stated?
The posting does not specify a salary.
Are there bonus skills?
Having built things with Elasticsearch, experience in search and information retrieval, and open source project experience are listed as bonus points.
Sample Interview Questions
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