Principal Vector Search Engineer

Elasticsearch B.V.; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 253,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock program

401k with company match

Flexible locations and schedules

Generous vacation days

Volunteer time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to advance vector similarity search in Elasticsearch. You will design and implement new vector features, optimize performance, and mentor a globally distributed team of engineers.

This role emphasizes independent ownership, collaboration across continents via async communication, and contributions to open source. Proficiency in Java and deep experience with vector databases are essential.

Qualifications

• Experience with vector similarity and vector databases.
• Strong Java skills and knowledge of data structures and concurrency.
• Ability to drive projects end-to-end and guide technical design.
• Experience collaborating across open source projects and remote teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead initiatives within Elasticsearch to produce an industry-leading vector database offering.
• Contribute to Elasticsearch full time, building new search features and fixing bugs, while simplifying the codebase.
• Work with a globally distributed team focused on vector search capabilities.
• Be an expert on Elasticsearch vector similarity and improve the area based on questions and instincts.
• Collaborate with global community on issues and PRs, triaging or taking ownership as needed.
• Write idiomatic modern Java – Elasticsearch is 99.8% Java.

Skills

Vector similarity

Java expertise

Distributed teamwork

Asynchronous collaboration

Open source experience

Tools

Elasticsearch

Solr

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

Cassandra

Job description

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to advance vector similarity search in Elasticsearch. You will design and implement new vector features, optimize performance, and mentor a globally distributed team of engineers.

This role emphasizes independent ownership, collaboration across continents via async communication, and contributions to open source. Proficiency in Java and deep experience with vector databases are essential.