Principal Software Engineer - Vector Search - Elasticsearch at Elastic
At a glance
- Company
- Elastic
- Location
- Portugal, PT
- Work arrangement
- Remote
- Employment type
- Full-time
- Experience
- 10+ years
- Working hours
- 40 hours
- Salary (as listed)
- EUR 67,000–106,000 per year
- Visa sponsorship
- Offered, according to the listing
- Posted
- Added to The Stack
✨ The Stack take on this Elastic job
- 🏢 Elastic has 2 jobs here, 2 with visa sponsorship see all
- 📊 3 Software Engineer jobs in Portugal in the last 60 days see them
- 🛂 Visa: EU Blue Card. Salary: At least 1.5 times the national average annual salary (1.2 times in some cases) guide
Updated 2026-11-01, from our data and official sources.
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About the role
Responsibilities:
- Lead design and implementation of vector similarity and vector search features within Elasticsearch.
- Invent or adapt algorithms and data structures (e.g. HNSW/IVF) to improve search relevance, latency and scalability.
- Diagnose and fix complex bugs; triage community issues and review/merge contributions.
- Collaborate with a globally distributed engineering team and contribute to Lucene/Elasticsearch architecture decisions.
- Produce high-quality, idiomatic Java code and ensure maintainability, performance and concurrent correctness.
- Mentor engineers, drive technical direction and communicate design trade-offs to stakeholders.
Requirements:
- Proven experience implementing vector similarity or vector DB features at scale (industry or research impact).
- Expert-level Java skills and deep knowledge of data structures, algorithms and concurrency.
- Familiarity with Elasticsearch/Lucene internals or similar search platforms (Solr) and distributed systems.
- Practical experience with approximate nearest neighbour techniques (HNSW, IVF) and performance tuning.
- Experience with storage/datastore integrations (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra) and system-level performance considerations.
- Strong communication skills and ability to work autonomously across time zones and open-source communities.
Responsibilities
Lead initiatives to develop Elasticsearch vector search features, design new algorithms and data structures, and collaborate with a globally distributed team to improve speed and relevance of vector search.
Requirements
Proven experience with vector similarity on large-scale search platforms, strong Java skills, experience with Elasticsearch and related data stores (Solr, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra), and ability to work autonomously across teams.
Key skills
- Java — in 334 other listings on The Stack
- Elasticsearch — in 44 other listings on The Stack
- Vector similarity — not in any other listing on The Stack
- HNSW — in 1 other listing on The Stack
- IVF — in 1 other listing on The Stack
- PostgreSQL — in 282 other listings on The Stack
- MongoDB — in 56 other listings on The Stack
- Cassandra — in 16 other listings on The Stack
- Solr
- distributed systems
- data structures
- concurrency
On The Stack (as of 2026-11-01)
Frequently asked questions about Elastic
Is this Principal Software Engineer - Vector Search - Elasticsearch role still open?
It was posted on 2026-10-31 and is listed as active on The Stack. Confirm on Elastic's application page before applying.
Does Elastic offer visa sponsorship?
This listing is marked as offering visa sponsorship. Eligibility rules are set by the employer, so check the details on Elastic's site.
Where is this role located?
The listing gives the location as Portugal, PT. It is marked remote.
What is the salary for this role?
The listing states a salary of EUR 67,000–106,000 per year.
What skills does this role ask for?
The listing names: Java, Elasticsearch, Vector similarity, HNSW, IVF, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, Solr, distributed systems, data structures, concurrency.