Principal Software Engineer I - Serverless - Platform Control Plane

What Is 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.

What You Will Be Doing :

• 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.

What You Bring :

• 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.

Bonus Points :

• 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).