Fullstack Software Engineer II - Admin UX - Platform Applications

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Fullstack Software Engineer II - Admin UX - Platform Applications

Company: Elastic

Location: Chicago, IL, United States

Job Type: Full-time

Category: Software Engineering / Platform Engineering

Date Posted: 2026-07-31

Experience Level: Mid-Level (5-10 years)

Remote Status: Hybrid/Remote (with potential for remote within the US)

🚀 Role Summary

• Design, build, and ship full-stack product features for administrative user experiences within the Elastic Cloud platform, leveraging modern web technologies and backend services.

• Own end-to-end delivery of features, ensuring stability and deployability across multiple product variants and environments through robust release management practices.

• Operate and maintain production services, actively participating in on-call rotations, triaging alerts, and ensuring continuous delivery pipelines are robust.

• Collaborate closely with Product Management and UX/UI Design teams to translate business goals and design prototypes into polished, accessible, and functional interfaces for administrators.

• Drive architectural improvements, advocate for automated testing, and maintain high engineering standards through thorough code reviews and constructive feedback.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is designated as a Fullstack Software Engineer II, indicating a mid-level position requiring a solid understanding of both front-end and back-end development, with an emphasis on platform applications and user experience for administrators. The mention of "Platform Applications" and "Admin UX" suggests a focus on internal tooling and infrastructure management, critical for a company like Elastic. The requirement for DoD Impact Level 4 eligibility points to a need for security-conscious development practices.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain full-stack features for administrative user interfaces and underlying backend services within Elastic Cloud.

• Implement and manage feature flags for controlled rollouts, ensuring stable and deployable releases across diverse product variants and operational environments.

• Participate in production incident response, including on-call rotations, alert triage, debugging issues using logs, metrics, and traces, and maintaining service level objectives (SLOs).

• Translate UX/UI design prototypes and product requirements into high-quality, accessible, and performant React components and Node.js backend services.

• Conduct rigorous code reviews, focusing on code quality, architectural consistency, test coverage, and providing actionable feedback to foster team growth and uphold engineering excellence.

• Proactively manage platform security and currency by reviewing dependency upgrades, addressing security vulnerabilities, and extending synthetic test coverage to prevent regressions.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including product managers, designers, and other engineering teams, to define requirements, iterate on designs, and ensure successful feature delivery.

• Advocate for and implement DevOps practices, including CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and robust monitoring, to ensure efficient and reliable service delivery.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities emphasize end-to-end ownership, from feature conception and development to production operations and maintenance. This "you build it, you run it" philosophy is common in modern platform engineering teams and requires a strong understanding of operational best practices, including incident management, monitoring, and continuous delivery. The explicit mention of "feature flags" and "synthetic test coverage" highlights a focus on safe, iterative development and deployment.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Experience: 5+ years of professional full-stack software development experience.

Required Skills:

• Advanced proficiency in full-stack development using React, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.

• Strong experience with Redux-style state management patterns and modern data-fetching techniques.

• Proven experience developing and operating Node.js backend services, including HTTP APIs, authentication/session management, and configuration management.

• Demonstrated ability to debug production incidents using logs, metrics, and traces.

• Solid command of Git and standard version control workflows.

• Experience with DevOps practices and tooling for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).

• Familiarity with automated testing frameworks for both front-end (e.g., React Testing Library) and back-end services.

• Experience with feature flag management and its role in release velocity and stability.

• Strong understanding of operational maturity, including on-call rotations, runbooks, and SLOs.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to provide constructive feedback and work effectively in a distributed team.

• Eligibility to work in Department of Defense (DoD) Impact Level 4 or above cloud service environments. Preferred Skills:

• Experience with AI development tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude) to accelerate development workflows.

• Familiarity with cloud computing environments and their operational aspects.

• Experience with observability tools for monitoring and troubleshooting distributed systems.

• Understanding of security vulnerabilities and best practices for mitigation.

• Experience with accessibility standards and implementation for web interfaces.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for 5+ years of experience aligns with a mid-level "Engineer II" designation. The emphasis on operational maturity, production ownership, and DoD eligibility are key differentiators for this role, suggesting it's not just a pure development position but one that requires a strong sense of responsibility for the services built. The explicit mention of AI tools indicates a forward-looking approach to development efficiency.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase of full-stack projects demonstrating proficiency in React, TypeScript, and Node.js, with clear examples of front-end UI development and backend API design.

• Examples of production-ready services, detailing their architecture, operational considerations, and how issues were resolved (e.g., through logs, metrics, traces).

• Case studies highlighting experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing strategies, and feature flag implementation for controlled deployments.

• Demonstrations of experience with Git workflows, code review processes, and contributions to architectural improvements.

• Projects that illustrate an understanding of user experience for administrators, focusing on clarity, efficiency, and accessibility. Process Documentation:

• Evidence of developing and maintaining runbooks or operational guides for services you've owned.

• Examples of how you've used feature flags to manage releases and mitigate risks.

• Documentation or examples of how you've implemented synthetic tests or other monitoring strategies to ensure service health.

• Case studies detailing how you've translated design prototypes into functional UI components, considering accessibility and user workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a mid-level full-stack role with operational responsibilities, a portfolio should not only showcase technical skills but also demonstrate a mature understanding of the software development lifecycle, from coding to deployment and ongoing operations. The emphasis on "Admin UX" and "Platform Applications" means projects related to internal tooling, dashboards, or management interfaces would be highly relevant.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• National Range (United States): $110,900 - $175,000 USD per year

• Select High-Cost Locations (e.g., Seattle, Los Angeles, Bay Area, NYC Metro): $133,200 - $210,000 USD per year

Explanation of Range: The salary range is determined by several factors, including relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business needs. These figures represent the typical starting salary range for new hires in this role.

Benefits:

• Competitive base salary, with no variable compensation component for this specific role.

• Eligibility for Elastic's stock program, allowing participation in the company's value creation.

• Company-matched 401k with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 6% of eligible earnings.

• Comprehensive health coverage for employees and their families in many locations.

• Flexible work arrangements, including flexible locations and schedules, to accommodate work-life balance.

• Generous annual vacation days.

• Employee donation matching program (up to $2000 USD or local equivalent) for financial donations and service.

• Up to 40 hours of paid volunteer time off annually.

• Minimum of 16 weeks of paid parental leave for new parents.

Working Hours: 40 hours per week (standard full-time).

📝 Enhancement Note: The provided salary ranges are specific and account for geographic cost-of-living differences, which is a crucial detail for candidates. The benefits package is comprehensive, with a strong emphasis on well-being, financial security (stock, 401k), and work-life balance (flexible schedules, parental leave, volunteer time). The mention of "Competitive pay based on the work you do here and not your previous salary" is a positive indicator for fair compensation practices.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology (Search, AI, Observability, Security)

Company Size: Elastic is a large, established technology company, likely with hundreds to thousands of employees globally. This size implies a structured environment with established processes but also opportunities for impact.

Founded: Elastic was founded in 2012, indicating a company with significant growth and maturity, having navigated multiple stages of scaling and product development.

Team Structure:

• The "Platform Admin UX" team is likely a specialized group within the broader engineering organization, focused on improving the user experience for administrators managing Elastic Cloud services.

• This team will likely consist of full-stack engineers, potentially with dedicated UX designers and product managers working closely with them.

• Collaboration will be cross-functional, involving interactions with core platform teams, security teams, and potentially customer-facing support or success teams. Methodology:

• Agile development methodologies are likely employed, with an emphasis on iterative development, continuous integration, and rapid feedback loops.

• A strong focus on data-driven decision-making, utilizing metrics and user feedback to guide product development and operational improvements.

• Emphasis on asynchronous communication and transparent documentation, crucial for a distributed team environment.

• Adoption of AI tools to enhance developer productivity and workflow efficiency.

Company Website: https://www.elastic.co/

📝 Enhancement Note: Elastic is known for its open-source roots with Elasticsearch and its evolution into a comprehensive cloud platform. This background suggests a culture that values innovation, community, and technical excellence. The "Search AI Company" positioning highlights a strategic focus on leveraging AI across its product suite. The company's distributed nature is a key cultural characteristic, impacting communication and collaboration styles.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is classified as "Software Engineer II," typically representing a mid-level engineer who can work independently on moderately complex tasks, contribute to design discussions, and mentor junior engineers. For a "Platform Applications" and "Admin UX" role, this level implies ownership of significant feature areas and responsibility for their operational stability.

Reporting Structure: The engineer will likely report to an Engineering Manager or Team Lead within the Platform Admin UX team. This manager will oversee project assignments, performance reviews, and career development discussions.

Operations Impact: This role has a direct impact on the usability and efficiency of Elastic Cloud for its administrators. By improving the admin experience, this engineer contributes to smoother operations, faster issue resolution, and better overall platform management, indirectly impacting customer satisfaction and retention. The focus on production services also means the role is critical for the reliability and performance of Elastic's core offerings.

Growth Opportunities:

• Technical Specialization: Opportunity to deepen expertise in full-stack development, React, Node.js, cloud operations, and potentially AI-assisted development.

• Leadership Development: As an Engineer II, there's a path to Senior Engineer roles, involving increased technical leadership, architectural design, and mentorship of junior team members.

• Domain Expertise: Develop deep knowledge of Elastic's platform, cloud offerings, and the specific needs of administrators, becoming a subject matter expert.

• Cross-functional Exposure: Collaborate with product, design, and other engineering teams, gaining broader understanding of the product lifecycle and business objectives.

• Operational Excellence: Grow in the ability to design, deploy, and operate highly available and scalable systems, a critical skill in the cloud-native era.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Engineer II" title is a standard mid-level designation. The growth opportunities are typical for this level, focusing on increasing technical depth, expanding leadership responsibilities, and gaining specialized domain knowledge within a growing tech company like Elastic. The DoD eligibility requirement could also open doors to specialized projects or security-focused roles within the company.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Elastic operates as a distributed company, meaning many roles, including this one, can be performed remotely or from a hybrid office setup. The specific environment will depend on the candidate's location and local team structure.

Office Location(s): While the role is listed for Chicago, IL, the company's distributed nature and the mention of "remote within the US" suggest flexibility. Candidates in other major US tech hubs might also be considered, especially if they meet the DoD eligibility requirements.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: Expect a highly collaborative environment, leveraging tools like Slack, Zoom, and shared documentation platforms for communication and knowledge sharing.

• Operations Tools & Technology: Access to a modern tech stack including cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, monitoring dashboards, and development tools.

• Team Interaction: Regular team meetings, code reviews, design discussions, and potentially virtual social events to foster team cohesion.

Work Schedule: Standard 40-hour work week, with flexibility in scheduling to accommodate distributed teams and personal needs. However, on-call responsibilities will require availability outside of standard hours.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "distributed company" model is a significant aspect of Elastic's work environment. This implies a need for strong self-management, proactive communication, and comfort with asynchronous collaboration. The specific "office type" will vary, but the overarching theme is flexibility and a reliance on digital collaboration tools.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter or hiring manager will review your application and conduct an initial phone screen to assess basic qualifications and cultural fit.

• Technical Interviews: Expect multiple rounds of technical interviews, likely including:

  • Coding Challenges: Live coding sessions focusing on algorithms, data structures, and problem-solving in JavaScript/TypeScript.
  • System Design: Discussions on designing scalable and maintainable full-stack applications, considering trade-offs and operational aspects.
  • Behavioral Interviews: Questions assessing your experience with teamwork, problem-solving, handling conflict, and your approach to development and operations.

• Portfolio Review/Deep Dive: A session dedicated to walking through selected projects from your portfolio, discussing your contributions, technical decisions, and impact. This is where your "Admin UX" and operational experience will be scrutinized.

• Hiring Manager/Team Lead Interview: A final discussion to assess your overall fit with the team and company culture, and to answer any remaining questions.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate Selectively: Choose 2-3 projects that best showcase your full-stack capabilities, Node.js backend experience, React front-end skills, and importantly, any experience related to platform administration, internal tooling, or operational responsibilities.

• Highlight Impact: For each project, clearly articulate the problem you solved, your specific contributions, the technologies used, and the measurable outcomes or impact (e.g., improved performance, reduced errors, enhanced user experience).

• Showcase Operational Maturity: If possible, include projects where you had ownership of deployment, monitoring, or incident response. Discuss your approach to ensuring reliability and stability.

• Admin UX Focus: If you have projects specifically related to user interfaces for administrators, internal dashboards, or management tools, these will be highly relevant and should be prioritized.

• Code Quality: Be prepared to discuss code quality, testing strategies, and architectural decisions. If your code is publicly available (e.g., on GitHub), ensure it's well-documented and presentable.

Challenge Preparation:

• Coding Practice: Practice common coding interview problems on platforms like LeetCode, HackerRank, focusing on JavaScript and TypeScript.

• System Design Fundamentals: Review common system design patterns for web applications, APIs, and distributed systems. Consider how to design for scalability, reliability, and security.

• Operational Scenarios: Prepare to discuss how you would approach debugging a production issue, what metrics you'd monitor, and how you'd use feature flags to manage risk.

• DoD Eligibility: Be ready to discuss your understanding of the requirements for working in DoD Impact Level 4+ environments and how your development practices align with these needs.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is structured to evaluate technical depth, problem-solving skills, operational readiness, and cultural alignment. The portfolio review is a critical component, especially for demonstrating the specific full-stack and operational experience required. Candidates should be prepared to discuss their contributions in detail and articulate the impact of their work.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Front-end: React, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Redux (or similar state management)

• Back-end: Node.js, HTTP APIs, potentially other backend languages/frameworks used within Elastic's ecosystem.

• Version Control: Git

• Development Environment: Likely involves modern IDEs (e.g., VS Code), package managers (npm/yarn), and build tools.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Observability Tools: Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, Logstash) is a primary candidate for internal monitoring, logging, and metrics.

• Monitoring & Alerting: Tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or Elastic's own APM and Uptime features.

• Testing Frameworks: React Testing Library, Jest, potentially E2E testing tools like Cypress or Playwright.

CRM & Automation:

• CI/CD: Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or similar CI/CD platforms.

• Feature Flagging: Internal or third-party feature flagging systems.

• Cloud Platform: Elastic Cloud (likely built on AWS, GCP, or Azure), with associated services.

• AI Development Tools: Cursor, Claude, or other AI-assisted coding assistants.

📝 Enhancement Note: Elastic's own products (Elastic Stack) are highly likely to be part of the internal technology stack used for monitoring, logging, and observability. A candidate's familiarity with these tools would be a significant advantage. The mention of AI development tools is a key technological requirement.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Ownership & Accountability: Taking full responsibility for the features and services built, from development through production operation.

• Data-Driven Decisions: Using metrics, logs, and user feedback to inform development priorities and operational improvements.

• Collaboration & Transparency: Working effectively in a distributed team, communicating clearly, and sharing knowledge openly.

• Continuous Improvement: Constantly seeking ways to enhance code quality, system reliability, development processes, and user experience.

• Security & Compliance: Prioritizing security in all development and operational activities, especially given the DoD eligibility requirement.

Collaboration Style:

• Asynchronous Communication: Reliance on tools like Slack, email, and project management systems for communication, with clear documentation being paramount.

• Code Review Culture: A strong emphasis on constructive code reviews as a mechanism for knowledge sharing, quality assurance, and mentorship.

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Close collaboration with product managers and UX/UI designers to ensure features meet user needs and business objectives.

• Peer Mentorship: Encouraging engineers to learn from and teach each other, fostering a supportive and growth-oriented environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: Elastic's culture, as a large tech company with open-source origins and a distributed workforce, likely emphasizes innovation, technical excellence, and individual responsibility. The specific values of the Platform Admin UX team will align with these broader company principles, with a particular focus on delivering robust and user-friendly administrative experiences for their cloud platform.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Balancing Feature Development with Operational Demands: Juggling the need to build new features with the ongoing responsibility of maintaining production services and responding to incidents.

• Complexity of a Distributed System: Navigating the intricacies of a large, distributed platform with multiple product variants and environments, requiring careful consideration of blast radius and dependencies.

• Keeping Pace with Evolving Technologies: Staying current with rapidly advancing web technologies, AI tools, and cloud infrastructure practices.

• Meeting DoD Eligibility Requirements: Ensuring all development and operational practices adhere to the stringent security and compliance standards required for DoD Impact Level 4+ environments.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Advanced Full-Stack Development: Deepen expertise in modern front-end frameworks (React), robust backend development (Node.js), and distributed systems architecture.

• Cloud Operations & SRE Practices: Gain hands-on experience with site reliability engineering principles, infrastructure management, and cloud-native operations.

• AI-Assisted Development: Explore and integrate AI tools into the development workflow to enhance productivity and code quality.

• Security Best Practices: Develop a strong understanding of security principles relevant to cloud services and government compliance.

• Mentorship & Technical Leadership: Progress towards senior engineering roles by mentoring junior colleagues and taking on more complex architectural challenges.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are typical for mid-level engineers in fast-paced technology environments, with an added layer of complexity due to the operational responsibilities and security requirements. The growth opportunities are well-defined and align with a typical career progression path in software engineering.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Tell me about a time you had to debug a complex production issue. What was your process, what tools did you use, and what was the outcome?" (Focus on your systematic approach, use of logs/metrics/traces, and any lessons learned.)

• "Describe a feature you designed and built from start to finish. What were the key technical decisions, trade-offs, and how did you ensure its reliability in production?" (Highlight full-stack expertise, operational considerations, and end-to-end ownership.)

• "How do you approach writing tests for both front-end and back-end code? What is your philosophy on test coverage and its role in CI/CD?" (Demonstrate understanding of testing discipline and its impact on release velocity and stability.)

• "How have you used feature flags in your previous roles? What are the benefits and potential pitfalls?" (Showcase practical experience with modern deployment strategies.)

• "How do you stay up-to-date with new technologies and development practices, especially AI tools?" (Highlight continuous learning and proactive skill development.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Elastic and this specific role on the Platform Admin UX team?" (Research Elastic's products, mission, and the team's focus on admin experience and cloud platform.)

• "How do you contribute to a positive and collaborative team environment, especially in a distributed setting?" (Emphasize communication skills, transparency, and proactive engagement.)

• "Describe your experience working with Product Management and UX/UI designers. How do you ensure alignment between technical implementation and user needs?" (Showcase cross-functional collaboration skills.)

• "What are your thoughts on operating services in production? What does 'operational maturity' mean to you?" (Connect your experience with the job requirements for running services.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each project, follow a clear story: Problem -> Solution -> Your Role/Contributions -> Technologies Used -> Outcome/Impact.

• Focus on Relevance: Prioritize projects that showcase full-stack development, Node.js backend, React front-end, and especially any administrative interfaces or operational responsibilities.

• Quantify Impact: Wherever possible, use metrics to demonstrate the success of your work (e.g., "reduced load time by X%", "decreased error rate by Y%", "handled Z concurrent users").

• Discuss Trade-offs: Be prepared to discuss why you made certain technical decisions and what alternatives you considered. This shows critical thinking.

• Explain Your Code: If presenting code samples, be ready to walk through key sections and explain the logic and design patterns used.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on demonstrating not only technical competence but also a mature understanding of software development lifecycle, operational excellence, and collaborative skills. Specific examples and a clear articulation of impact are crucial. Candidates should research Elastic's products and culture to tailor their responses.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Fullstack Software Engineer II position:

• Submit your application through the Elastic careers portal via the provided job URL.

• Customize Your Resume: Tailor your resume to highlight your 5+ years of full-stack experience, specific skills in React, TypeScript, Node.js, and any relevant operational experience. Quantify achievements where possible.

• Prepare Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 key projects that best demonstrate your full-stack capabilities, particularly those involving administrative interfaces or production service ownership. Ensure your contributions are clearly defined.

• Research Elastic & the Team: Understand Elastic's mission, products (especially Elasticsearch and Elastic Cloud), and the likely goals of the Platform Admin UX team. This will help you tailor your answers during interviews.

• Practice Interview Questions: Review common technical and behavioral interview questions, focusing on providing specific examples that align with the job description's requirements, especially regarding production operations and DoD eligibility.

• Be Ready for Code & System Design: Practice coding challenges and brush up on system design principles relevant to scalable web applications and distributed systems.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.