Sr. Software Engineer

Description

The company, 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. By taking advantage of all structured and unstructured data — securing and protecting private information more effectively — the company’s complete, cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability help organizations deliver on the promise of AI.

What is The Role

Could we build a better version of an expensive SaaS tool on Elasticsearch? Our new IT Software Engineering team asks that question about the software the company pays for, and then we build the answer. Each system helps run the company day to day and becomes a reference architecture for the company's own products.

We're a team of builders, and this is a hands-on, 100% individual contributor role. Every engineer here owns their work end to end: shaping the problem, designing the system, shipping it, and keeping it healthy for years. Knowing what to build, and what not to build, matters more here than typing speed.

What this role is not:

Not a front-end role. The user interface follows a shared kit and is the simplest part of the work.

Not a prototype or demo role. What we ship runs in production and is maintained for years.

Not vibe coding. We use AI to build faster, not to skip design, review or testing.

Not SaaS administration or configuration , and not an infrastructure-only or DevOps-only role.

Not a people-management role.

What You Will Be Doing

Take an open business problem, decide what to build and what to leave out, and turn it into a clear spec, data model and API contracts.

Build internal applications that replace paid, specialized tools.

Solve the hard parts that all of these applications share:

reading data from several systems of record accurately and efficiently, without overloading or slowing those systems down

storing sensitive data so it never leaks

enforcing permissions on the server, so each person sees only the records and fields they are allowed to see

Design and evolve the shared, versioned building blocks that every application is built from: data connectors, authorization, data storage and migrations, search, and reporting.

Build with AI coding agents such as Claude Code inside a disciplined, spec-driven process. Acceptance criteria are traced to tests, interface contracts get compatibility checks, and small slices are reviewed and proven before the next one starts. Automated quality gates decide when work is done.

Own what you build for its whole life: review, testing, releases, production operations including on-call, new features, maintenance and, eventually, retirement.

Help set the team's standards for architecture, contracts, testing and observability, and feed what you learn back into the company's products.

What You Bring

Senior-level experience designing, shipping and maintaining production backend systems through failures and changing requirements, not just launching them.

Sound judgment about what to build, what to leave out, and how to keep a system simple as its requirements change. You apply abstraction, separation of concerns, single responsibility, SOLID and common design patterns where they fit.

Strong API and data design: clear contracts and careful data models, and the ability to change both without breaking the people who depend on them.

Experience integrating with other systems (APIs, databases, event streams) safely and efficiently.

Security-first thinking about authorization and sensitive data.

Search fundamentals. You can explain:

how information is indexed and how text is processed

how results are scored and ranked

when to use keyword, vector (semantic) or hybrid search

Strong experience in TypeScript, Python, Java or a comparable language. We build in TypeScript, and engineers from other backgrounds who want to work in TypeScript are welcome.

Comfort building with AI coding agents and reviewing their output skeptically. You hold yourself accountable for everything that ships.

You like writing specs and recording design decisions, and you let tests and checks, not claims, decide when something is done.

Daily, disciplined use of AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot or similar) on production work.

Bonus Points

Hands-on experience with Elasticsearch

Observability: logs, metrics, traces and alerting.

LLM features: retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), embeddings, LLM gateways and evaluations.

A degree in Computer Science or a related field.

Compensation for this role is in the form of base salary. This role does not have a variable compensation component.

The typical starting salary range for new hires in this role is listed below. In select locations (including Seattle WA, Los Angeles CA, the San Francisco Bay Area CA, and the New York City Metro Area), an alternate range may apply as specified below.

These ranges represent the lowest to highest salary we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the ranges may be modified in the future.

An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.

The company 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 the company'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.

The typical starting salary range for this role is:

$133,100 - $210,600 USD

The typical starting salary range for this role in the select locations listed above is:

$159,900 - $252,900 USD

Additional Information - We Take Care of Our People

As a distributed company, diversity drives our identity. Whether you’re looking to launch a new career or grow an existing one, the company 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.

We strive to have parity of benefits across regions and while regulations differ from place to place, we believe taking care of our people is the right thing to do.

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

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 the company's site . We will reply to your request within 24 business hours of submission.

Applicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws, view posters linked below: Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Poster; Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision Poster; Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) Poster and Know Your Rights (Poster)

Elasticsearch develops and distributes technology and information that is subject to U.S. and other countries’ export controls and licensing requirements for individuals who are located in or are nationals of the following sanctioned countries and regions: Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, or Russia, including the Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia (The Crimea region of Ukraine, The Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), The Luhansk People's Republic (LNR), Kherson or Zaporizhzhia). If you are located in or are a national of one of the listed countries or regions, an export license may be required as a condition of your employment in this role. Please note that national origin and/or nationality do not affect eligibility for employment with the company.

Please see here for our Privacy Statement.