Senior Elasticsearch Engineer

About Us:

Swarm Int is a defense AI startup developing cutting‑edge computer vision and edge AI capabilities for military expeditionary forces. We strive to develop operator‑in‑the‑loop solutions for warfighters with active contracts supporting the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community.

We're seeking a Senior Elasticsearch Engineer to architect and optimize search infrastructure for a large‑scale enterprise data solution supporting our Intelligence Community customer. You'll design systems that enable real‑time search and retrieval across petabytes of data to support operational intelligence analysis and decision‑making. This role requires regular on‑site work at customer facilities in Bethesda, Maryland, including work in classified facilities (SCIF).

• Design and implement high‑performance search infrastructure for large‑scale data ingestion and retrieval
• Architect indexing strategies for diverse data types including time‑series, geospatial, and vector embeddings
• Build and optimize real‑time data pipelines for continuous index population
• Performance tune queries and clusters for sub‑second response times on massive datasets
• Integrate search capabilities with AI/ML pipelines and analytics platforms
• Design data retention, archival, and lifecycle management strategies
• Deploy and manage search infrastructure in containerized environments and on‑premises deployments
• Work in restricted and air‑gapped network environments
• Mentor engineers on search architecture and optimization techniques
• Collaborate across teams on data architecture and integration patterns

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
• 8‑12 years experience with Elasticsearch in production environments
• Deep understanding of search engine internals, indexing, and query optimization
• Experience designing and scaling distributed search clusters
• Strong programming and scripting skills for automation and tooling
• Experience building data ingestion pipelines
• Proficiency with cluster monitoring and performance analysis
• Understanding of distributed systems and data replication
• Active TS/SCI with Single Scope (CI) Polygraph
• Required (Do not apply unless you have this)
• U.S. Citizenship required
• Ability to work on‑site in Bethesda, Maryland 2‑4 days/week including at classified facilities

• Experience with vector search and similarity queries
• Knowledge of Open Search or experience with multiple search platforms
• Familiarity with AI/ML workflows and embedding‑based search
• Experience with streaming data platforms and message queues
• Knowledge of data lakehouse architectures and technologies
• Experience with complementary data stores and caching systems
• Understanding of workflow orchestration tools
• Experience with containerization technologies (Docker)
• Knowledge of government data systems and security requirements (NIST 800‑171, CMMC)
• Experience in air‑gapped or restricted environments
• Experience with enterprise‑scale data solutions at petabyte scale

• Competitive salary (~$200K based on experience)
• Annual performance bonus
• 401k with competitive company match
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
• Clearance retention bonuses
• Work on high‑impact search problems at petabyte scale
• Professional development budget
• Collaborative startup environment with experienced technical leadership
• Direct impact on intelligence capabilities for national security