---
title: 'Principal Software Engineer (Java) - Security - Elasticsearch at Elastic'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-software-engineer-java-security-elasticsearch-elastic-united-kingdom-t3jwm77hp58h'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-14'
---

# Principal Software Engineer (Java) - Security - Elasticsearch at Elastic

- **Company:** Elastic
- **Location:** United Kingdom
- **Posted:** 2026-10-07
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.elastic.co/jobs?gh_jid=8260870&gh_jid=8260870

## Job description

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 seeking a Principal Software Developer to join the Elasticsearch Security team. In this role, you will lead the architecture and design of Elasticsearch's main features. These features include authentication, authorization, and tenant isolation.

You will work with engineering and product leaders at Elastic. Your goal is to provide high-performance security at all levels. This includes ensuring that our distributed data store has top-quality security at scale.

## What You Will Be Doing

- Owning core security initiatives from architecture to production, focusing on the delivery of new critical features. Leading the technical design, plan, and execution for major security components inside the Elasticsearch core engine.
- Developing the foundational security models for intricate features.
- Optimizing security performance at scale in distributed systems environments.
- Applying cryptographic solutions to address genuine customer use cases.
- Ensuring robust data isolation within shared infrastructure supporting disparate customers.
- Monitoring and applying the latest advancements and best practices in security. This includes authentication, identity management, cryptography, and data access management.
- Collaborating with peers across the company to embed security into new customer features from the outset.
- Drive vulnerability management efforts by collaborating closely with the InfoSec team to proactively identify, assess, and remediate security risks.
- Leverage AI-driven tools to automate vulnerability triage, prioritization, and preliminary investigation, streamlining security workflows and reducing manual intervention.
- Mentoring and coaching other engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and security-first development.

## What You Bring

- You have deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management. You understand how concurrency models work. You can write code that is high-performance, thread-safe, and lock-free. This experience includes working with large open-source and enterprise codebases.
- You have proven experience in designing and building systems for authorization that can scale. This includes deep experience designing scalable RBAC/ABAC models and token validation pipelines. It includes permission compilation and distributed cache invalidation strategies.
- You have a solid comprehension of distributed systems security, including node-to-node mutual trust, zero-trust transport, partition tolerance, and cluster state propagation.
- You have a deep knowledge of edge identity protocols (OAuth 2.0, SAML).
- 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 lead a distributed team by leveraging asynchronous, direct, and transparent communication.

Bonus Points

- Knowledge of cipher suites, TLS handshakes, and PKI/certificate lifecycle management.
- Cryptographic methods considering memory usage and delays.
- Familiarity with the implications of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and readiness to support the migration of services to quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms.
- Hands-on experience mapping engine-level technical controls to FedRAMP (Moderate/High), FIPS 140, and SOC 2 requirements.
- Experience working on the internals of a data store or search engine.

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, 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: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/legacy/files/fmlaen.pdf Poster; [Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision](https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ofccp/pdf/pay-transp_%20English_formattedESQA508c.pdf) Poster; https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/legacy/files/eppabw.pdf Poster and [Know Your Rights](https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OFCCP/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights.pdf) (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 Elastic.

Please see [here](https://www.elastic.co/legal/applicant-privacy-statement) for our Privacy Statement.

## About Elastic

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Elastic is the Search AI company that helps organizations leverage real-time data for search, observability, and security solutions.
- **Entity Type**: Public (NYSE: ESTC)
- **Headquarters**: Mountain View, California, USA (global distributed workforce)
- **Founded**: 2012
- **Founders**: Shay Banon (creator of Elasticsearch)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Enterprise software – Search, Observability, Security (SIEM, endpoint detection, cloud security)
- **Target customers**: B2B, enterprise, mid-market, and SMB; over 50% of the Fortune 500 rely on Elastic.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: Help everyone find the answers they need in real time using all their data, at scale – powered by Search AI.

## Products & Services
- **Elasticsearch**: Distributed search and analytics engine (open source / SaaS / self-managed).
- **Kibana**: Visualization and exploration tool for Elasticsearch data.
- **Elastic Observability**: Unified observability for logs, metrics, APM, and infrastructure monitoring.
- **Elastic Security**: AI-driven SIEM, endpoint security, and threat intelligence.
- **Elastic Cloud**: Fully managed service on AWS, GCP, and Azure.
- **Elastic Agent Builder**: Tool to build context-driven AI agents within Elasticsearch.
- **Elastic Workflows**: Native automation for security and observability workflows.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Publicly traded – market cap and financials available in SEC filings (not directly cited in provided sources).
- **Key Metric**: Annual revenue (FY2025) publicly reported at approximately $1.67 billion; strong recurring revenue growth.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Public company with institutional investors; cloud partners include AWS, Google Cloud, Azure; recognized by Gartner, Forrester, IDC as a Leader.
- **Growth Signals**: Over 50% of Fortune 500 customers; named a Leader in IDC Marketscape (General-Purpose Knowledge Discovery 2025) and Forrester Wave (Cognitive Search Q4 2025); 23% improvement in MTFR with GenAI Support Assistant; InfoSec team reclaims 75% time with Security AI Assistant.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Open source foundation** (Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, Logstash) with strong community and ecosystem.
- **Unified platform** for search, observability, and security – reduces tool sprawl.
- **Distributed-by-design** architecture that scales horizontally.
- **AI-native** capabilities (Search AI, AI assistants, agent builder) integrated directly into the data platform.
- **Trusted by global enterprises** – robust security and compliance programs (Trust Center).

## Strategic Focus
- **Search AI**: Combining search with generative AI for better retrieval and answers.
- **Agentic AI**: Building reliable context-driven AI agents.
- **Cloud growth**: Expanding Elastic Cloud on major hyperscalers.
- **Security modernization**: AI-driven analytics to detect and respond faster.
- **Observability unification**: Breaking down silos between logs, metrics, and traces.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “Distributed by design” – remote, hybrid, and in-person roles available. Emphasizes global inclusion, with employees from 40+ countries and 100+ nationalities.
- **Work environment**: Flexible work options; workspace reimbursement for remote setup (every 5 years).
- **Benefits**: Competitive compensation, equity, employee stock purchase plan, health coverage, parental leave, family formation benefits, paid time off (PTO), 40 hours volunteer time off per year, donation matching up to $2,000/year.
- **Engineering culture**: Run on own products (dogfooding); focus on open source, innovation, and AI.
- **Career growth**: Opportunities across engineering, product, sales, marketing, and more.

## Sources
1. [elastic.co/careers](https://www.elastic.co/careers)
2. [elastic.co/about](https://www.elastic.co/about)
3. [elastic.co](https://www.elastic.co/)
4. [jobs.elastic.co](https://jobs.elastic.co/)
5. [elastic.co/careers/benefits](https://www.elastic.co/careers/benefits)

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