Senior Java Software Engineer - Search Inference - Platform

About Elastic and the Role

Elastic is a leader in Search AI, enabling real-time data exploration across structured and unstructured information for businesses worldwide. The Elastic Search AI Platform, trusted by over half of the Fortune 500 companies, combines precision search capabilities with AI intelligence to deliver accelerated insights. The platform secures sensitive data and offers cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Java Developer to join our Elasticsearch team, focusing on developing and maintaining the Inference API — a critical component integrating Elasticsearch with multiple machine learning services, including Elastic's own Elastic Inference Service and third-party providers such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Cohere, and Google.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and sustain integrations between Elasticsearch and both internal and external machine learning inference providers, managing schema negotiation, streaming protocols, and normalization of errors.
• Enhance the inference plugin’s architecture encompassing task configuration, chunking, rate limiting, and provider-specific settings.
• Review contributions from open source collaborators, ensuring adherence to Elastic’s technical standards through effective teamwork with third-party engineers.
• Participate in on-call rotations to promptly address inference-related operational issues.
• Author comprehensive tests including unit tests using ESTestCase, YAML-based REST integration tests, and rolling-upgrade tests.

Candidate Qualifications

• More than five years of professional experience in Java development, especially with large, mature codebases, demonstrating strong command of core Java concepts, including collections, concurrency, and modern language features.
• Proficiency in designing user-friendly APIs and capable of making informed trade-offs in design decisions.
• Expertise with low-level Java aspects such as concurrency, parallelism, and classloader mechanics.
• A history of leveraging AI tools to streamline development processes, debug complex systems, and optimize performance while ensuring quality outcomes.
• Strong collaborative skills that allow smooth interaction across different teams and flexibility to switch between projects and codebases as per priorities.
• Ability to work independently and lead decision-making within a distributed team environment, employing clear and effective communication channels.

Preferred Additional Skills

• In-depth knowledge of Java Development Kit internals, including modularization, memory management, garbage collection, database loading, and caching strategies.
• Experience working with machine learning systems.
• Contributions to and stewardship of open source software projects.
• Familiarity with Java build tools like Gradle or Maven, with a preference for Gradle.
• Background working within platform or developer productivity teams.

Benefits and Culture

Elastic values diversity and supports a healthy work-life balance with flexible work schedules and locations. Employees receive competitive pay based on merit rather than past salaries, extensive health coverage for employees and their families in many regions, and a generous vacation policy. The company also encourages community engagement through matching donations up to $2000 annually and offers up to 40 volunteer hours each year. Parental leave policies include a minimum of 16 weeks of leave. Elastic is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive environment and provides accommodations to applicants with disabilities.

Compensation

The position offers a base salary ranging typically between €87,300 and €138,100 EUR annually, without additional variable pay components. Salary determinations consider experience, skills, role requirements, and job complexity.

Legal and Compliance Notes

Elastic complies with federal employment laws and is subject to export control regulations restricting employment for nationals or residents of certain sanctioned countries such as Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Russia, and specific Ukrainian territories. The company is committed to privacy and equal opportunity.