Senior Java Software Engineer - Search Inference - Platform

Elastic
Ireland
On-site

Who this role is best for

Aimed at experienced Java developers with a background in AI integration who can work collaboratively in a distributed team.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 5+ years of Java production experience and a track record of contributing to large codebases
    — “5+ years of production Java experience, with experience contributing to a large, established Java codebase”
  • Individuals with a strong understanding of API design and the ability to balance technical trade-offs
    — “Experience crafting ergonomic APIs and the ability to reason through tradeoffs”
  • Candidates who are comfortable with asynchronous communication and distributed team dynamics
    — “You can work autonomously, drive decisions and results in a distributed team by leveraging asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication”

Things to consider

  • The role includes on-call responsibilities for inference-related incidents
    — “Participate in on-call rotation for inference-related incidents”
  • Compensation does not include variable components like bonuses or commissions
    — “Compensation for this role is in the form of base salary. This role does not have a variable compensation component”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with plugin frameworks and REST API development in your resume and interviews
    — “maintain and develop the plugin framework and REST API”
  • Emphasize your ability to manage complex systems and integrate with external ML services
    — “Build and maintain integrations with internal systems and external inference providers”
  • Showcase your experience with testing strategies, including unit and integration testing
    — “Write thorough tests: unit tests using ESTestCase, YAML-based REST integration tests”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • maintaining and developing integrations
  • contributing to internal architecture
  • participating in on-call rotation
Typical background
software engineeringbackend development

Skills & requirements

Required

Java DevelopmentPlugin FrameworkREST APIProtocol DesignStreamingAsync ExecutionBilling Integration

Preferred

JDK InternalsML SystemsOpen Source ContributionsBuild Tools

Stack & domain

JavaProduction Java ExperienceLarge, Established Java CodebaseCore JavaStandard Library Of Data StructuresConcurrency ConstructsNewer Language FeaturesAPI CraftingTradeoffsLow-level JavaConcurrencyParallelismClassloadersAIDevelopmentDebug Complex SystemsOptimize CodeCollaborate Across FunctionsDistributed TeamAsynchronous CommunicationOpen Source ContributionsOwnership Of Open Source ProjectsJava Build ToolsGradleMavenPlatform TeamDeveloper Productivity TeamProven Track RecordAccelerate Development

About the role

Original posting from Elastic

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.

What is The Role

We are on the lookout for a Senior Java Developer to join our Elasticsearch team and drive our work on the Inference API in Elasticsearch.

The Elasticsearch Inference API is the integration layer between Elasticsearch and external machine learning services including Elastic's own Elastic Inference Service (EIS), third-party providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Cohere, Google), and self-hosted models. It powers features like semantic search, reranking, and generative AI across Elastic Cloud and in hosted environments.

You'll maintain and develop the plugin framework and REST API with your work spanning protocol design, streaming, async execution, billing integration, and with a tight collaboration with the wider inference team and the Kibana team.

What You Will Be Doing

Build and maintain integrations with internal systems and external inference providers, including schema negotiation, streaming (SSE), and error normalisation

Contribute to the inference plugin's internal architecture: task settings, chunking strategies, rate limiting, and provider-level configuration

Review open source contributions to the codebase and work with third party engineers to ensure their contributions meet our technology standards

Participate in on-call rotation for inference-related incidents

Write thorough tests: unit tests using ESTestCase, YAML-based REST integration tests, and rolling-upgrade tests

What You Bring 

5+ years of production Java experience, with experience contributing to a large, established Java codebase. You know core Java and are conversant in the standard library of data structures and concurrency constructs, as well as newer language features.

Experience crafting ergonomic APIs and the ability to reason through tradeoffs.

Experience with low-level Java such as concurrency, parallelism, classloaders, etc.

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 functions and 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.

Bonus Points

Knowledge of JDK internals: modules, the Java memory model, garbage collection, database load, caching techniques, etc.

Experience with ML systems

Contributions to and ownership of open source projects

Knowledge of Java build tools (Gradle, Maven, etc), with a strong preference for Gradle experience.

Experience working in a platform team or developer productivity team

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

At Elastic, our compensation philosophy aims to provide fair, competitive and transparent remuneration. Salary ranges are established based on a combination of external market benchmarks, internal pay equity considerations, and the responsibilities and complexity associated with each role. This approach helps ensure consistency across comparable roles while remaining competitive within the relevant labour markets.

The final compensation offered within the applicable range will be determined based on several objective factors, including relevant professional experience, level of skills and expertise, alignment with the role requirements, and the overall scope and complexity of the position.

The typical starting salary range for this role is:€87.300—€138.100 EURAdditional 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, 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.

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

Different people approach problems differently. We need that. Elastic is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive culture that celebrates different perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. 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 candidate_accessibility@elastic.co. 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)

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Source: Elastic careers

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