Principal Software Engineer I - Platform Billing Core

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

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage for you and family

Flexible locations and schedules

Generous vacation days

Employer 401k matching up to 6%

Volunteer time off (40 hours/year)

Parental leave improvement

Job summary

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Engineer I for the Billing Core to drive technical direction and own complex billing systems across cloud providers. This hands-on role focuses on data pipelines, system reliability, and scalable architectures.

You will mentor engineers and collaborate with Product, SRE, and Finance to align roadmaps with business goals. The role emphasizes strong Python and PostgreSQL skills, cloud infrastructure expertise, and experience with SaaS billing.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in backend or platform engineering with Python and PostgreSQL (schema design, performance, high availability).
• Proven experience improving reliability, observability, and incident response in production systems.
• Cloud infrastructure experience across AWS, GCP, or Azure including networking, IAM, monitoring, and deployment.
• Ability to lead multi-quarter projects across teams—building consensus and delivering results.
• Track record of mentoring engineers, setting technical direction, and raising engineering standards.
• Experience with SaaS billing, metering, or financial systems is a real plus.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills; able to influence across teams and with non-technical partners.
• Comfortable in a distributed, async environment and across projects/teams.

Responsibilities

• Own complex billing and account management systems across multiple services and cloud providers.
• Build large-scale data pipelines for billing data ingestion, transformation, and reconciliation.
• Improve observability, incident response, and reliability of core billing systems using modern DevOps practices.
• Shape system architecture for scale and modularity; guide service design, API structure, and data modelling.
• Collaborate with SRE and Cloud teams to enhance deployment, monitoring, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Own PostgreSQL data architecture and performance; focus on query speed, schema quality, and high availability.
• Be the go-to technical reviewer for the billing core stack and maintain consistency and quality.
• Mentor engineers across Billing to raise design and operational standards.
• Coordinate with Product, Design, and Finance to set feasible roadmaps aligned with business goals.
• Participate in on-call rotations to ensure production readiness through automation and resilience testing.

Skills

Python

PostgreSQL

Backend engineering

Cloud infrastructure

Observability & incident response

Leadership & mentoring

SaaS billing / metering

Communication

DoD IL4 eligibility

Job description

Principal Software Engineer I - Platform Billing Core

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 :

Billing powers Elastic's Cloud business. It runs across AWS, GCP, and Azure in over 50 regions. We oversee usage‑based metering, consumption billing, and marketplace integrations at global scale.

The Billing Core team owns the data layer that makes billing correct, auditable, and automated. We work across two areas:

Usage — Collect and process usage and cost data. This data is the foundation of our billing and financial reporting.

Engine — Turn hourly usage data into customer invoices and revenue records.

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to drive technical direction within the Billing Core domain. This is a hands‑on role. You will design systems, improve how we operate, and work across teams. You will help our billing services grow in scale, reliability, and developer productivity. You will work closely with Product, SRE, and Cloud Infrastructure teams.

What You Will Be Doing :

Own complex billing and account management systems that span multiple services and cloud providers.

Build large‑scale data pipelines for billing data ingestion, transformation, and reconciliation.

Improve observability, incident response, and reliability of core billing systems using modern DevOps practices.

Shape system architecture for scale and modularity. Guide service design, API structure, and data modelling.

Work with SRE and Cloud teams to improve deployment, monitoring, and CI/CD pipelines.

Own PostgreSQL data architecture and performance. Focus on query speed, schema quality, and high availability.

Be the go‑to technical reviewer for the billing core stack. Maintain technical consistency and quality standards.

Mentor engineers and tech leads across the Billing organization. Help raise the bar on design and operational standards.

Work with Product, Design, and Finance to set roadmap priorities. Make sure plans are feasible and aligned with business goals.

Take part in on‑call rotations. Make sure systems are production‑ready through automation, resilience testing, and alerting.

What You Bring :

8+ years in backend or platform engineering, with solid skills in Python and PostgreSQL (schema design, performance, high availability).

Proven experience improving reliability, observability, and incident response in production systems.

Solid background in cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), including networking, IAM, monitoring, and deployment.

Ability to lead multi‑quarter projects across teams — building consensus and delivering results.

Track record of mentoring engineers, setting technical direction, and raising engineering standards.

Experience with SaaS billing, metering, or financial systems is a real plus.

Clear written and verbal communication skills. Able to influence across teams and speak to both technical and non‑technical partners.

Comfortable working on your own in a global, distributed, and async environment.

Able to work across projects, work across functions and teams, and adapt to changing team structures.

Track record of using AI to speed up development, debug complex systems, and improve code quality — while owning the outcomes.

Eligible to work in Department of Defense (DoD) Impact Level 4 or above cloud service environments.

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 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 each year
• Increase your impact - We match up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent) for financial donations and service
• Up to 40 hours each year to use toward volunteer projects you love
• Embracing parenthood with minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave

Different people approach problems differently. We need that. Elastic is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law, ordinance or regulation.

We welcome individuals with disabilities and strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all individuals. To request an accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please email [e-mail] We will reply to your request within 24 business hours of submission.

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