# Principal Software Engineer - Vector Search - Elasticsearch

**Company**: Elastic
**Location**: United States
**Work arrangement**: remote
**Experience**: senior
**Job type**: full-time
**Salary**: $159,800-$252,800 USD
**Category**: Engineering
**Industry**: Technology

**Apply**: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/elastic/jobs/7843348?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply
**Canonical**: https://yubhub.co/jobs/job_773105a9-849

## Description

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.

We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join the Elasticsearch - Search team. This globally-distributed team of expert engineers focuses on delivering a robust and feature-rich search experience, including contributing to improving the search experience in Lucene.

**What You Will Be Doing**

- Lead initiatives within Elasticsearch to produce an industry-leading vector database offering, supplying unparalleled speed and relevance in search.

- Contribute to Elasticsearch full time, building new search features and fixing intriguing bugs, all while making the code easier to understand.

- Work with a globally distributed team of experienced engineers focused on the vector search capabilities of Elasticsearch.

- Be an expert on how Elasticsearch implements vector similarity in support of search relevance.

- Work with community members from all over the world on issues and pull requests.

- Write idiomatic modern Java -- Elasticsearch is 99.8% Java!

**What You Bring Along**

- You have implemented novel techniques in vector similarity on a search platform with a large user base or progressed the field of academic research in vector similarity information retrieval.

- Professional experience with vector similarity and vector databases, and you used HNSW, IVF, or other relevant algorithms and libraries on search platforms at scale.

- You have strong skills in core Java and are conversant in the standard library of data structures and concurrency constructs.

- You work with a high level of autonomy, and are able to take on projects and guide them from beginning to end.

- You're comfortable developing collaboratively.

- You've used several data storage technologies like Elasticsearch, Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Cassandra.

- You have excellent verbal and written communication skills.

**Benefits**

- 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

## Skills

### Required
- Java
- vector similarity
- vector databases
- HNSW
- IVF
- Elasticsearch
- Lucene

### Nice to have
- open source projects
- data storage technology
- cross-functional initiatives

---

Source: [Apply at job-boards.greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/elastic/jobs/7843348?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply)