Principal Software Engineer I - CI/CD - Platform Engineering Productivity

About the role

The Platform Engineering Productivity team runs the CI, CD and release infrastructure so developers can deploy changes safely and at scale. Elastic is looking for a proactive systems thinker who drives business-driven projects and keeps the infrastructure ahead of scaling and security challenges. The role is paid by base salary only, with a typical starting range of 73,300 to 115,900 EUR.

Key responsibilities

• Define the roadmap and technical vision for CI/CD, from problem identification through org-wide adoption.
• Spot bottlenecks, friction and security risks in CI/CD early and drive their remediation.
• Design and enforce release gates covering supply chain integrity, artifact provenance and release readiness, scalable across teams.
• Lead engineers on multi-quarter projects: break down the architecture, assign work and own the outcome.
• Drive technical communication and alignment across teams and produce high-quality documentation.
• Serve as Incident Commander on high-severity supply chain or release incidents and turn them into structural improvements.
• Raise the engineering bar through code review, mentorship, design review and setting voluntary standards.
• Stay hands-on at the right depth: reviewing code, prototyping and debugging production issues, while leveraging the work of others.

Required profile

• Deep expertise in CI/CD and hardening release pipelines against supply chain attacks.
• Track record of multi-quarter, cross-org ownership, changing how other organizations work.
• Ability to push back on a prescribed plan and gain alignment on a better approach.
• Experience directing other engineers' work toward outcomes, not just collaboration.

Required skills

• CI infrastructure such as Buildkite, GitHub Actions or equivalent.
• GitOps/ArgoCD and Kubernetes.
• Full-stack debugging across the pipeline, from test runner to artifact store to cluster deployment.
• Using AI to speed up your own work and your team's.