Opportunity at
ElasticSenior Java Software Engineer - Search Inference - Platform
Elastic is hiring a Senior Java Software Engineer for its Search Inference platform in the United Kingdom. The post is on-site and full-time, based in the…
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About This Role
Elastic is hiring a Senior Java Software Engineer for its Search Inference platform in the United Kingdom. The post is on-site and full-time, based in the Elasticsearch group that builds the Inference API. That API connects Elasticsearch with machine learning services, whether run by Elastic or by outside vendors, and drives retrieval features such as semantic matching, reranking and generative AI. Day-to-day work includes building and upkeep of connections to…
Job Description
Elastic is hiring a Senior Java Software Engineer for its Search Inference platform in the United Kingdom. The post is on-site and full-time, based in the Elasticsearch group that builds the Inference API. That API connects Elasticsearch with machine learning services, whether run by Elastic or by outside vendors, and drives retrieval features such as semantic matching, reranking and generative AI.
Day-to-day work includes building and upkeep of connections to internal systems and third-party inference vendors, covering request negotiation, server-sent event streaming and error translation. The engineer also shapes the plugin's internals, such as task configuration, chunking methods, throttling and per-provider settings, and reviews code contributed by outside developers.
A strong candidate will have five or more years of production Java, an understanding of concurrency, parallel execution and classloading, and the ability to build clean APIs. The position is autonomous and distributed, so clear asynchronous writing matters. Testing duties span unit tests, YAML-driven REST suites and rolling-upgrade checks.
Responsibilities
- Create and sustain links to internal platforms and outside inference vendors, including streaming and error handling
- Help shape the plugin's architecture across task settings, chunking, throttling and provider configuration
- Evaluate open-source code from third-party developers against engineering standards
- Rotate through on-call duty for inference problems
- Build unit tests, YAML-driven REST suites and rolling-upgrade checks
Requirements
- Five or more years of production Java on a large, mature codebase
- Command of core Java, standard collections, concurrency utilities and modern language constructs
- Skill in creating ergonomic interfaces and reasoning about trade-offs
- Familiarity with low-level topics such as concurrency, parallelism and classloaders
- Working independently and collaborating across teams in a distributed environment
Qualifications
- Understanding of JVM internals such as the module system, memory model, garbage collection and caching
- Experience with ML systems, and authorship or stewardship of open-source projects
- Experience with Gradle, Maven or comparable build tools (Gradle preferred)
- Background on a platform or developer-productivity team
Core Skills
Benefits
- Compensation tied to the scope of the work, not to earlier salary
- Medical cover extending to family members in a number of locations
- Adaptable hours and places of work for many positions
- A generous annual holiday entitlement
- Donation matching of up to $2,000 (or local equivalent) for charitable giving and volunteering
- As many as 40 yearly hours for volunteer work of your choosing
- Minimum 16-week parental leave
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers are based only on the employer’s listing; where it doesn’t say, neither do we.
Is this role remote or on-site?
The posting lists the role as on-site in the United Kingdom.
What salary does the posting state?
The posting gives a typical starting base salary of EUR 67,000 to EUR 106,000. The role has no variable compensation component.
How much production experience is required?
The posting asks for five or more years of production Java experience.
Does the role involve on-call duty?
Yes. The engineer is expected to take turns in the on-call schedule covering inference problems.
Sample Interview Questions
AI-generated questions tailored to this specific role — a preview of the full practice set.