Principal Security Engineer — Core Elasticsearch Security

Elastic; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully paid health coverage

Flexible location & schedule

Generous vacation days

16 weeks parental leave

Volunteer hours

Charitable matching

Job summary

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Developer to lead the architecture of Elasticsearch’s security features, including authentication, authorization, and tenant isolation. You will drive design choices that scale across the distributed data store and mentor engineers on secure development.

You will collaborate with engineering and product leaders to embed security from the outset, apply cryptographic solutions, and advance vulnerability management with the InfoSec team.

Qualifications

• Design scalable authorization systems using RBAC/ABAC.
• Build security features for a distributed data store at scale.
• Apply cryptographic methods and PQC considerations.
• Leverage AI-driven tools to accelerate security workflows.
• Collaborate across teams to embed security early in product
• Mentor engineers in secure development practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and design of Elasticsearch security features including authentication and tenant isolation.
• Own core security initiatives from architecture to production.
• Drive vulnerability management with the InfoSec team.
• Mentor and coach engineers on security-first development.
• Collaborate across teams to embed security in new customer features.
• Apply cryptographic solutions to customer use cases.

Skills

RBAC/ABAC design

Java performance

Security in distributed systems

OAuth 2.0 & SAML

Cryptography concepts

AI-assisted security development

Tools

TLS libraries

PKI tooling

Security instrumentation

Job description

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Developer to lead the architecture of Elasticsearch’s security features, including authentication, authorization, and tenant isolation. You will drive design choices that scale across the distributed data store and mentor engineers on secure development.

You will collaborate with engineering and product leaders to embed security from the outset, apply cryptographic solutions, and advance vulnerability management with the InfoSec team.