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

The Search Inference team is responsible for bringing performant, ergonomic, and cost effective machine learning (ML) model inference to Search workflows. ML inference has become a crucial part of the modern search experience whether used for query understanding, semantic search, RAG, or any other GenAI use-case.

Our goal is to simplify ML inference in Search workflows by focusing on large scale inference capabilities for embeddings and reranking models that are available across the Elasticsearch user base. As a team, we are a collaborative, cross-functional group with backgrounds in information retrieval, natural language processing, and distributed systems. We work with Go services, Python, Ray Serve, Kubernetes/KubeRay, and work in AWS, GCP & Azure.

We provide thought leadership across a variety of mediums including open code repositories, publishing blogs, and speaking at conferences. We focus on matching the expectations of our customers along the lines of throughput, latency, and cost. We’re seeking an experienced Senior Site Reliability Engineer to help us deliver on this vision!

What you will be doing

Working with the wider team to evolve our inference service so it may scale efficiently and reliably, hosting a growing number of models for semantic search, agentic workflows and foundation models.
Ensuring proactive monitoring and SLO-based alerting using error budgets to prevent incidents before they happen.
Enhancing the scalability and reliability of the service and partnering with the team to ensure knowledge is shared, clear documentation is produced, and best practices are followed
Growing our global infrastructure to meet increasing scaling demands by developing and maintaining software, tooling, and automations.
Collaborating in an inclusive environment, focusing on operational excellence and uplifting each other with constructive feedback.
Being part of an SRE on-call rotation responding to operational needs and incidents.

What you bring

5+ years of experience in a site reliability engineer (or equivalent) role, operating services in production at scale
3+ years of experience with Kubernetes, Helm & containerised services
Experience Terraform/Pulumi/Crossplane or similar
Experience writing non-trivial code in a language like Python, Go, or equivalent
Strong Linux fundamentals, experience writing Bash scripts
Strong written communication

Bonus points

Experience working with Ray and KubeRay is a big plus! Experience working with the Elastic Observability Stack

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/affirmative action employer committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 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)

Elasticsearch develops and distributes encryption software and technology that is subject to U.S. 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, Russia, Syria, the Crimea Region of Ukraine, the Donetsk People’s Republic (“DNR”), and the Luhansk People’s Republic (“LNR”). 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.

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Search - Search Inference - Senior Site Reliability Engineer

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