Senior Java Engineer - Security - Elasticsearch
Senior Java engineer on Elastic's Elasticsearch Security team, building core security features — authentication, authorization, and tenant isolation — for the distributed search engine. Day to day: designing security models, optimizing performance at scale, applying cryptography, and driving vulnerability management with AI-assisted tooling.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- United Kingdom
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Senior
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Software engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Deep knowledge of Java internals and JVM memory management
- Understands concurrency models; writes high-performance, thread-safe, lock-free code
- Experience with large open-source and enterprise codebases
- Experience building scalable, performant authorization systems (access models, credential/token validation at scale, consistent decisions across distributed systems)
- Solid comprehension of distributed systems security (node-to-node mutual trust, zero-trust transport, partition tolerance, cluster state propagation)
- Deep knowledge of edge identity protocols (OAuth 2.0, SAML)
- Proven track record of using AI to accelerate development, debug complex systems, and optimize code
- Ability to collaborate across functions/teams and transition between projects, codebases, or teams
- Able to work autonomously in a distributed team via asynchronous, direct, transparent communication
Nice to have
- Knowledge of cipher suites, TLS handshakes, and PKI/certificate lifecycle management
- Cryptographic methods considering memory usage and delays
- Familiarity with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and migration to quantum-resistant algorithms
- Hands-on experience mapping technical controls to FedRAMP (Moderate/High), FIPS 140, and SOC 2 requirements
- Experience working on the internals of a data store or search engine
Full 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 Senior Software Developer to join the Elasticsearch Security team. In this role, you will contribute to 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 participate in providing 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:
- Contributing to core security initiatives from architecture to production, focusing on the delivery of new critical features. Participating in the technical design, planning, and execution for major security components inside the Elasticsearch core engine.
- Developing the foundational security models for 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.
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 experience building authorization systems that are scalable and performant under high concurrency and large permission sets, including designing access models, validating credentials/tokens at scale, and keeping authorization decisions consistent across a distributed system.