Principal Software Engineer I - CI/CD - Platform Engineering Productivity

Referral Board; United States; On-site; USD 160,000 - 253,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock program

401k plan with match

Benefits package

Job summary

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Engineer I to lead CI/CD for Platform Engineering Productivity. You will shape the roadmap, improve release security, and guide teams through complex, multi-quarter initiatives across distributed environments. You’ll mentor, review code, and contribute hands-on debugging where it matters most.

The role emphasizes securing the software supply chain, scalable release governance, and clear cross-team communication to help Elastic ship faster and more securely.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in CI/CD and hardening release pipelines against supply chain attacks.
• Strong debugging across the full pipeline stack from test runner to artifact store to cluster deployment.
• Hands-on with CI infrastructure (Buildkite, GitHub Actions, or equivalent), GitOps/ArgoCD, and Kubernetes.
• Track record of multi-quarter, cross-org ownership and driving change beyond direct reports.
• Ability to push back on plans when needed and align on better approaches.
• Directing engineers toward outcomes and breaking down complex problems into executable work.

Responsibilities

• Define the roadmap and technical vision for CI/CD and drive org-wide adoption.
• Identify bottlenecks, security risks, and remediation to prevent incidents.
• Design and enforce release gates for supply chain integrity and readiness.
• Lead engineers on multi-quarter projects and own outcomes across distributed teams.
• Produce clear technical communications and high-quality architectural documentation.
• Act as Incident Commander on high-severity supply chain or release incidents.

Skills

CI/CD expertise

Release security

Incident Command

Cross-team leadership

AI-enabled work

Tools

Buildkite

GitHub Actions

ArgoCD

Kubernetes

Job description

Principal Software Engineer I - CI/CD - Platform Engineering Productivity

United States

Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find the answers they need in real time, using all their data, at scale — unleashing the potential of businesses and people. The Elastic Search AI Platform, used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500, brings together the precision of search and the intelligence of AI to enable everyone to accelerate the results that matter. By taking advantage of all structured and unstructured data — securing and protecting private information more effectively — Elastic’s complete, cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability help organizations deliver on the promise of AI.

What Is The Role :

The Platform Engineering Productivity team operates the CI, CD, and Release infrastructure for the company. We ensure developers can efficiently and safely deploy changes across our various environments and at scale. In an age of AI, the landscape is evolving rapidly from scaling needs to, more than ever, securing our supply chain. There are interesting challenges to tackle.

We're looking for a proactive systems thinker who delivers on business-driven projects while identifying and driving the work that keeps our infrastructure ahead before scaling and security challenges become problems. If you're energized by work that makes every engineering team at Elastic ship faster and more securely, we'd love to hear from you.

What You Will Be Doing :

Define the roadmap and technical vision for CI/CD, from problem identification through org-wide adoption.

Identify where CI/CD is a bottleneck, a source of friction, or a security risk before it becomes an incident, and drive the remediation rather than waiting to be assigned it.

Design and enforce release gates covering supply chain integrity, artifact provenance, and release readiness, built to scale across teams without becoming a tax on engineering velocity.

Direct engineers on your team through complex, multi-quarter projects: break down the architecture, assign the work, and own the outcome even when the execution is distributed.

Drive clear technical communication and alignment across teams, and produce high-quality documentation for systems, processes, and architectural decisions.

Serve as Incident Commander on high-severity supply chain or release incidents, and use each incident as a forcing function for structural improvements.

Raise the engineering bar across the org through code review, mentorship, design review, and by setting standards others adopt voluntarily.

Remain hands-on at the right depth: you'll review code, prototype approaches, and debug production issues, but your primary leverage at this level is through the work of others, not your own output.

What You Bring :

Deep expertise in CI/CD and what it takes to harden a release pipeline against supply chain attacks.

Strong debugging instincts across the full pipeline stack: you trace failures from test runner to artifact store to cluster deployment without needing a specialist for each layer.

Hands-on with CI infrastructure (Buildkite, GitHub Actions, or equivalent), GitOps/ArgoCD, and Kubernetes.

You use AI to accelerate your own work and your team's and you understand AI's impact on supply chain security and scale.

A track record of multi-quarter, cross-org ownership: you've identified the right problem, designed the solution, and gotten organizations that didn't report to you to change how they work.

The judgment to push back on a prescribed plan when it's the wrong call, and the credibility to get alignment on a better approach.

Experience directing the work of other engineers toward outcomes not just collaborating, but breaking down complex problems into executable work and holding the outcome.

Compensation for this role is in the form of base salary. This role does not have a variable compensation component.

The typical starting salary range for new hires in this role is listed below. In select locations (including Seattle WA, Los Angeles CA, the San Francisco Bay Area CA, and the New York City Metro Area), an alternate range may apply as specified below.

These ranges represent the lowest to highest salary we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the ranges may be modified in the future.

An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.

Elastic believes that employees should have the opportunity to share in the value that we create together for our shareholders. Therefore, in addition to cash compensation, this role is currently eligible to participate in Elastic's stock program. Our total rewards package also includes a company-matched 401k with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 6% of eligible earnings, along with a range of other benefits offered with a holistic emphasis on employee well-being.

The typical starting salary range for this role is:

$159,800 - $252,800 USD

The typical starting salary range for this role in the select locations listed above is:

$191,900 - $303,500 USD

Additional Information - We Take Care of Our People

As a distributed company, diversity drives our identity. Whether you’re looking to launch a new career or grow an existing one, Elastic is the type of company where you can balance great work with great life. Your age is only a number. It doesn’t matter if you’re just out of college or your children are; we need you for what you can do.

We strive to have parity of benefits across regions and while regulations differ from place to place, we believe taking care of our people is the right thing to do.

• Competitive pay based on the work you do here and not your previous salary
• Health coverage for you and your family in many locations
• Ability to craft your calendar with flexible locations and schedules for many roles
• Generous number of vacation days