Principal Vector Search Engineer

Elastic; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Flexible location & schedule

Generous vacation days

Donation matching

Job summary

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch - Search team. You will enhance vector similarity search, design and implement new features, and resolve complex bugs for a robust search experience.

We are a globally distributed team that values asynchronous collaboration, high-autonomy work, and strong coding practices. You will work with community members worldwide and contribute to open source ecosystems.

Qualifications

• Professional experience with vector similarity and vector databases, using algorithms like HNSW or IVF.
• Strong skills in core Java and standard library; familiarity with concurrency and lambdas.
• Autonomy to drive projects from design to implementation; able to guide other engineers.

Responsibilities

• Lead initiatives in Elasticsearch to create a leading vector database offering with high speed and relevance.
• Contribute to Elasticsearch full-time, build new search features and fix bugs; implement new algorithms as needed.
• Collaborate with a globally distributed team focusing on vector search capabilities and performance.
• Be expert on how Elasticsearch implements vector similarity to support search relevance; improve area based on feedback.

Skills

Vector similarity

Java

Distributed teamwork

Asynchronous collaboration

Data storage concepts

Tools

Elasticsearch

Solr

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

Cassandra

Lucene

Job description

Elastic is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch - Search team. You will enhance vector similarity search, design and implement new features, and resolve complex bugs for a robust search experience.

We are a globally distributed team that values asynchronous collaboration, high-autonomy work, and strong coding practices. You will work with community members worldwide and contribute to open source ecosystems.