Principal Performance Engineer for Distributed Systems

Neura Market; Cork; Hybrid; EUR 105,000 - 166,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage for you and family

Flexible locations and schedules

Generous vacation days

Volunteer time and donations matching

Parental leave

Job summary

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead performance engineering for Elasticsearch. You will own architecture-level optimizations, develop performance models, and drive AI-assisted benchmarking across distributed systems.

Join a distributed team focused on scalable, high-performance search and AI retrieval. The role emphasizes collaboration, autonomous work, and a lasting impact on product performance across diverse environments.

Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management.
• Proven experience profiling and optimizing distributed systems.
• Solid understanding of distributed systems architecture, including partition tolerance and scaling challenges.
• Proven track record using AI or advanced tooling to accelerate optimization and automate benchmarking workflows.
• Ability to collaborate across functions and teams as a force multiplier for performance engineering.
• Ability to pivot between projects, codebases, or teams based on business priorities.
• Autonomous work style with asynchronous, direct, transparent communication.

Responsibilities

• Own core performance engineering initiatives from architecture to production.
• Develop performance models and methodologies for complex distributed systems.
• Drive optimization strategies for performance, predictability, and scalability.
• Profile and analyze system behavior to identify bottlenecks in logging, metrics, vector search, and ES|QL.
• Ensure robust benchmarks and regression detection for stateful and serverless architectures.
• Embed performance-first thinking into new features from the outset.
• Lead automation efforts by building AI-assisted optimization harnesses for profiling and benchmarking.
• Mentor engineers to foster a culture of technical excellence.

Skills

Java internals

JVM memory management

Profiling distributed systems

Benchmarking tools

Distributed systems architecture

AI-assisted optimization

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Flamegraphs

JMH

Rally

Job description

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead performance engineering for Elasticsearch. You will own architecture-level optimizations, develop performance models, and drive AI-assisted benchmarking across distributed systems.

Join a distributed team focused on scalable, high-performance search and AI retrieval. The role emphasizes collaboration, autonomous work, and a lasting impact on product performance across diverse environments.