Principal Vector Search Engineer — Scale & AI

Elastic; Lavamünd; Remote; EUR 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay

Health coverage

Flexible locations and schedules

Generous vacation days

Parental leave

Volunteer time off

Job summary

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch - Search team. You will focus on enhancing vector similarity search functionality, designing and implementing novel algorithms, and improving search relevance for a globally distributed user base.

You will lead initiatives, collaborate across continents, review code, and contribute to evolving the vector search ecosystem within Elasticsearch. Strong Java skills and experience with vector databases are essential.

Qualifications

• Experience with vector similarity on large-scale search platforms.
• Proficiency in core Java and data structures; strong concurrency knowledge.
• Experience with vector databases and algorithms like HNSW or IVF.
• Ability to work autonomously and guide projects end-to-end.
• Strong communication and collaboration across distributed teams.
• Experience with AI-accelerated development and debugging of complex systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead initiatives within Elasticsearch to deliver industry-leading vector database features.
• Build new search capabilities and fix complex bugs to improve speed and relevance.
• Collaborate with a globally distributed team of engineers on vector search capabilities.
• Serve as an expert on vector similarity implementation within Elasticsearch.
• Engage with open source communities and manage issues/pull requests.
• Write idiomatic modern Java with a focus on performance and maintainability.

Skills

Vector similarity

Java programming

Distributed collaboration

Open source experience

AI acceleration of development

Code review and collaborative design

Elasticsearch/Solr/MongoDB experience

Tools

Elasticsearch

Solr

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

Cassandra

Job description

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch - Search team. You will focus on enhancing vector similarity search functionality, designing and implementing novel algorithms, and improving search relevance for a globally distributed user base.

You will lead initiatives, collaborate across continents, review code, and contribute to evolving the vector search ecosystem within Elasticsearch. Strong Java skills and experience with vector databases are essential.