Principal Data Scientist - Agent Builder

What is The RoleElastic, 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.The Search Conversational Experiences team builds Elastic's new conversational and agentic platform that lets customers chat with their own data in Elasticsearch. We build the core quality layer for RAG, agents and tools, retrieval and citations, streaming, memory, and the evaluation signals that turn open?ended questions into grounded, reliable answers.What You Will Be DoingDefine the evaluation strategy for conversational and agentic search, including offline and online evaluation, golden datasets, rubrics, LLM?as?judge calibration, groundedness and citation checks, and A/B testing.Lead the design of quality metrics and decision frameworks for RAG, agents, tools, model selection, agent routing, prompt behavior, and cost/latency trade?offs.Build, compare, and guide improvements across retrieval and re?ranking approaches, including sparse and dense retrieval, vector search, query understanding, semantic rewrites, and context enrichment.Turn experimental results into product and business decisions: which models to use, how to route requests efficiently, which tools should be exposed, and how agents should be customized for different Elastic use cases.Partner with engineering to productionize evaluation pipelines, telemetry, dashboards, CI guardrails, and regression detection for chat quality, helpfulness, dedication, latency, and cost.Influence the roadmap by identifying the highest?leverage quality gaps, proposing practical solutions, and communicating trade?offs clearly to product, engineering, and leadership.Mentor other data scientists and engineers in experiment design, evaluation methodology, statistical rigor, and practical approaches to improving LLM?powered systems.Share outcomes through clear docs, notebooks, PRs, dashboards, technical proposals, and cross?functional reviews.What You Bring8+ years of applied DS/ML experience, with deep expertise in IR, NLP, ranking, semantic search, RAG, or LLM?powered product experiences.Strong track record defining and leading evaluation for production AI/ML systems, including offline metrics, online experimentation, LLM?as?judge approaches, groundedness, citation quality, and model comparison.Experience influencing product and technical strategy through data, especially in ambiguous or emerging domains where the "right" metric or approach is not obvious at the start.Hands?on ability with Python, PyTorch/Transformers, Pandas, notebooks, reproducible experiments, versioned datasets, and clean, reviewable code.Strong understanding of retrieval systems, including dense and sparse retrieval, re?ranking, vector search, query understanding, and evaluation metrics such as nDCG, MRR, Recall@k, precision, and latency/cost trade?offs.Experience collaborating closely with engineering teams to move from prototype to production, including telemetry design, dashboards, CI guardrails, and quality regression tracking.Practical Elasticsearch experience, or experience with similar search and distributed data systems. ES|QL familiarity is a plus.Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to explain complex scientific and technical trade?offs to engineering, product, design, and leadership audiences.A collaborative, low?ego style and a strong ability to mentor, raise standards, and develop transparency for others in a distributed team.CompensationCompensation for this role is in the form of base salary. This role does not have a variable compensation component. At Elastic, our compensation philosophy aims to provide fair, competitive and transparent remuneration. Salary ranges are established based on a combination of external market benchmarks, internal pay equity considerations, and the responsibilities and complexity associated with each role. The typical starting salary range for this role is:€€ EURAdditional Information - We Take Care of Our PeopleBenefitsCompetitive 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 €2,000 (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.EEO StatementDifferent 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 . We will reply to your request within 24 business hours of submission.Applicable Laws and NoticesApplicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws, view posters linked below:Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination ProvisionEmployee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)Know Your Rights (Poster)Please see here for our Privacy Statement.#J-*****-Ljbffr

8+ years of applied DS/ML experience, with deep expertise in IR, NLP, ranking, semantic search, RAG, or LLM?powered product experiences. Strong track record defining and leading evaluation for production AI/ML systems, including offline metrics, online experimentation, LLM?as?judge approaches, groundedness, citation quality, and model comparison. Experience influencing product and technical strategy through data, especially in ambiguous or emerging domains where the "right" metric or approach is not obvious at the start. Hands?on ability with Python, PyTorch/Transformers, Pandas, notebooks, reproducible experiments, versioned datasets, and clean, reviewable code. Strong understanding of retrieval systems, including dense and sparse retrieval, re?ranking, vector search, query understanding, and evaluation metrics such as nDCG, MRR, Recall@k, precision, and latency/cost trade?offs. Experience collaborating closely with engineering teams to move from prototype to production, including telemetry design, dashboards, CI guardrails, and quality regression tracking. Practical Elasticsearch experience, or experience with similar search and distributed data systems. ES|QL familiarity is a plus. Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to explain complex scientific and technical trade?offs to engineering, product, design, and leadership audiences. A collaborative, low?ego style and a strong ability to mentor, raise standards, and develop transparency for others in a distributed team.

Compensation for this role is in the form of base salary. This role does not have a variable compensation component. At Elastic, our compensation philosophy aims to provide fair, competitive and transparent remuneration. Salary ranges are established based on a combination of external market benchmarks, internal pay equity considerations, and the responsibilities and complexity associated with each role. The typical starting salary range for this role is, 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 €2,000 (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. EEO Statement 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 . We will reply to your request within 24 business hours of submission. Applicable Laws and Notices Applicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws, view posters linked below: Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) Know Your Rights (Poster) Please see here for our Privacy Statement. #J-*****-Ljbffr