Principal Software Engineer I - Serverless - Platform Control Plane

📋 Job Overview

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.

🏢 About Elastic

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.

🎯 The Role

The Control Plane Serverless team builds and operates the orchestration layer behind Elastic Cloud Serverless. Elastic Cloud Serverless is our fully managed offering, built on a stateless architecture that separates compute from storage and scales automatically with customer demand. We build the distributed services that create, configure, scale, and manage the lifecycle of Serverless projects on AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure, and we own Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK). Our stack is built on Kubernetes, Go, and cloud-native architectures.

This is a Principal level role for an engineer who wants to shape where this platform goes next. Elastic is investing heavily in Serverless, building new capabilities for customers and expanding to more regions and cloud providers, while holding a high bar for reliability and security. You will set technical direction for this work, not just execute it.

We are a distributed team of skilled engineers across the world. We work asynchronously by default, write things down, share context openly, and give engineers real ownership of hard problems. You will partner closely with our tech lead, engineering manager, and product management, and with teams such as Elasticsearch and Kibana on initiatives that span the whole stack.

Day to day, you will shape technical designs and trade-off analyses, write and review code, lead the investigation of complicated failure scenarios, and balance work across security, reliability, and features. You will also participate in an on-call rotation to address operational events in a timely manner.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Set the technical direction for major initiatives across the Serverless control plane, owning designs from proposal through general availability.
• Lead multi-quarter projects with dependencies across teams such as Elasticsearch and Kibana, and guide these projects through to delivery.
• Design, build, and evolve the distributed systems that orchestrate and manage Serverless projects across cloud service providers.
• Raise the operational bar of our services, lead complex incident investigations and reviews, and participate in the on-call rotation.
• Mentor and support engineers across the team, level up our collective technical judgment, and set the standard for how we build software.
• Partner with and advise product management and senior engineering stakeholders on technical trade-offs, feasibility, and roadmap direction.
• Identify and champion improvements to security, stability, and cost efficiency before they become problems.

📌 Required Qualifications

• 8+ years building software, including setting technical direction for complex distributed systems running production at scale (Staff or Principal level, or equivalent scope).
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes and cloud-native architecture, including designing systems that orchestrate other systems.
• Proficiency with Go, and hands-on work with at least one major cloud service provider (AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure).
• You have operated high-availability SaaS platforms, responded to incidents, and improved reliability over time.
• You have a proven track record of using AI to accelerate development, debug complex systems, and optimize code, while still owning the final outcomes.
• You possess the ability to collaborate across teams and seamlessly transition between different projects, codebases, or teams based on business priorities.
• You can work autonomously, drive decisions and results in a distributed team by leveraging asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication.
• You communicate clearly and can influence direction across teams and levels without formal authority.

⭐ Desirable Experience

• You have built for FedRAMP or other regulated, compliance-heavy environments.
• Practical knowledge of the Elastic Stack or any of its products.
• You have worked with Kubernetes operators or Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK).

🎁 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.

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.

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

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 [email protected]. We will reply to your request within 24 business hours of submission.