Principal Software Engineer - Vector Search - Elasticsearch

📋 Description

• Lead initiatives within Elasticsearch to produce an industry-leading vector database offering with
• Contribute to Elasticsearch full time, building new search features and fixing intriguing bugs.
• Work with a globally distributed team focused on vector search capabilities of Elasticsearch.
• Be an expert on vector similarity in support of search relevance; drive improvements.
• Collaborate with community members worldwide on issues and pull requests.
• Write idiomatic modern Java; Elasticsearch is 99.8% Java.

🎯 Requirements

• Experience with vector similarity on large-scale search platforms or related academic work.
• Professional experience with vector similarity algorithms (e.g., HNSW, IVF) used at scale.
• Strong core Java skills and knowledge of data structures, concurrency, and lambdas.
• Autonomous work style with ability to drive projects from design to delivery.
• Collaborative, with ability to work across distributed teams and asynchronous communication.
• Experience with data storage tech (Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra).

🎁 Benefits

• Health coverage for you and your family where available.
• Flexible locations and schedules for many roles.
• Generous vacation days each year.
• Volunteer time and charitable matching programs.
• Support for parental leave and work-life balance.