Community, consulting, and chili sauce: Top Down with Dominik Toepfer

In all areas of his life, Dominik “Dom” Toepfer is an engineer. From fixing up RC cars for his kids to race in his backyard to experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen (ghost pepper chili sauce in tow), his curiosity for creating things doesn’t end when he shuts his computer. 

Even with these at-home projects, Dom values collaboration and feedback. While he might have a taste for spicy sauces, his two- and five-year-olds find even black pepper too spicy. Just like at work, Dom understands that the best projects are about the journey it takes to make them and the people he experiences them with.

“We build better together,” he says, both at work and in his personal life. “If that means I build with a team or with the greater Elastic community, in the end, we’re all greater for it.”

At Elastic, Dom is a principal software engineer working on generative AI (GenAI) and Search. His journey was less than linear. It started with a book Elasticsearch: The Definitive Guide. After reading it nine years ago, Dom followed his curiosity and joined Elastic as a consultant, traveling often and engaging with customers on site before becoming a sales partner, delivery manager, and now engineer, bolstered by his infosec background and CISSP certification.

Transitioning through all these roles exposed Dom to different Elastic teams and, most importantly, unique perspectives of the company. Now, he’s stitched them all together like a kaleidoscope that lets him see what different teams need and how his work as an engineer can support them. “I connect with developers across different internal teams, staying plugged into what everyone's working on and finding ways we can help each other out,” he says. “I get to use all of the crucial perspectives I’ve gained at each step to leverage Elastic software to build the future of GenAI and Search for internal teams and customers alike.”

Dom knows when it’s time to chat to customers and collaborators, but he also knows when to listen and lock in. He is as connected to his sense of internal motivation as he is to the Elastic community. “The motivation gets easier once you connect with what drives you. For me, it's being part of building features that help our internal teams and customers discover value in completely new ways.”

With a mind that’s always whirring to the next thing — hence all of his varied hobbies! — Dom likes to explore a host of new apps, techniques, and technologies to stay on the cutting edge of new developments and provide the most insight. Leaning into natural curiosity is key for an engineer. But just as important is curating a workspace and toolkit that generate inspiration to build. According to Dom, this takes time: “I've been mastering the work-from-home game for nearly two decades and like anything worth doing well, it takes intentional practice.”

It starts with his physical environment, which is a luxury to the former consultant. “After years of traveling the world as a consultant, you learn to adapt to any workspace,” he says. He’s learned that the secret weapon to any workspace is a quiet space to think. All he needs to achieve that are his noise-cancelling headphones. These are especially helpful as a work-from-home dad. Dom has to work around his kids’ schedules. They wake up early, and so does he, giving him a head start on the day. Then, he plans his day around his responsibilities and makes sure to be logged off in time for dinner. After building the future of tech, he says he relishes that he gets to go “home every evening to hear about my kids' adventures, too!”

His desk setup is precisely configured at this point. His Apple M3 MacBook Pro 14-inch and LG UltraFine 5K monitor are his “workhorses” paired with his Apple Magic Mouse and Keyboard. Comfort is also key. “I'm in a Herman Miller Aeron chair that keeps my aging back happy and positioned by a window, so I can stare at actual trees instead of walls during summer.”

Dom gets it: Never underestimate the importance of the vibe of a workspace.

“The desk has some bamboo plants because they're low maintenance; a nixie clock because glowing tubes are just cool; a mini 64th scaleRC surf van for when I need to crash something that isn't code; Harry Caray reading glasses for style points; and a tuna fish puzzle for brain breaks,” says Dom. And for mood music, he often turns to electronic sounds but occasionally switches it up. “Sometimes, you need a break from all that electronic energy, so I'll throw on some 90s rock or classical to cleanse the palate.”

His digital environment is just as specific. Honed over time, Dom’s toolkit is extensive but flexible. “I'm basically a tool collector who gets genuinely excited about apps that solve real problems,” he says. This same excitement drives his own projects. In his library of apps, Dom has everything from monitoring tools to productivity boosters, content creation apps, and developer tools. They each serve their purposes. “Each category solves different pain points,” insists Dom. “They all make my workflow so much smoother!”

AI capabilities have also swooped in to optimize Dom’s workflow. “GenAI has really transformed how I approach work," he says. He views it like a partner instead of just a tool. “It's like having this incredibly patient brainstorming partner. I use it constantly for exploring new ideas; breaking down complex tasks to weigh different options; refining system prompts until they're perfect; pushing through those documentation roadblocks; and handling all the small developer maintenance tasks that nobody volunteers for — code comments, documentation, and naming variables. Yes, all the stuff we pretend we'll do later!”

In his work as a developer, Dom wants customers to feel the same ease and excitement with the tools he builds. As lucky as he feels to be surrounded by a collaborative environment at Elastic, he knows that isn’t the case everywhere. His work sees AI tools and new software developments as potential partners for clients. However, he knows it can’t replace the ingenuity of human creativity. “When you're breaking new ground where there's no prior art, you're constantly making tweaks and adjustments along the way,” Dom explains. “It's more like having a really smart copilot than an autopilot.”

Then, he dives into Elasticsearch, which is usually the core of his team’s projects because of his work on GenAI and Search. These days, his team is also implementing retrieval augmented generation (RAG) more than ever. “RAG is woven throughout our applications and user experiences, and having the complete Elastic Stack as our foundation has been incredible,” says Dom. After years of working with external teams, working with Elastic at Elastic is still satisfying to Dom. “Sometimes, it's nice when your company's core technology is exactly what you need to solve the problem!”

Dom admits that the projects he’s working on at Elastic are his dream projects. “Every project I work on with our amazing team feels like a passion project,” he says. He credits the team — ian, Jared, Andy, Tony, Autumn, Steven, and Cory — for creating such a supportive working environment. “We're a small team responsible for a lot,” he explains, “but that's exactly what makes us effective. Everyone steps up; everyone contributes; and we get things done together.”

The main thing that keeps him excited is seeing how his work impacts Elastic customers. “When you're working on projects that genuinely solve real problems and create meaningful impact for them, why would you want to be doing anything else?”

From internal to external teams, Dom appreciates the feedback he gets from the people who use his products. “Our internal support engineers, sales teams, and customers are all benefiting from RAG implementations in really meaningful ways,” he says. For example, when it comes to customers, some of his current work involves “building chatbots and specialized experiences that create real value for our engineers, sales teams, and customers by genuinely reducing everyday friction.”

At the end of the day, this is what it’s about for Dom: building, building with a team, and building well — and, of course, being home for dinner. With over eight years of experience at Elastic, he has been part of the technology’s evolution, which is one of the most satisfying parts of his experience. “Today's Elastic Cloud experience feels like magic,” he says, reminiscing about the long nights it took to get it there. But it was all worth it. “Instead of fighting with hardware, I get to focus on building the features that actually matter. It's been an incredible journey watching this evolution happen.”

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