Staff Software Engineer, Applied AI Engineering

Google
Sunnyvale, California, United StatesFull-time$207,000–$300,000Posted Sep 1, 2026

About the role

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
  • 8 years of experience in software development.
  • 5 years of experience testing, and launching software products, and 3 years

of experience with software design and architecture.

  • 5 years of experience leading ML design and optimizing ML infrastructure

(e.g., model deployment, model evaluation, data processing, debugging, fine

tuning).

  • 2 years of experience with GenAI techniques (e.g., LLMs, Multi-Modal, Large

Vision Models) or with GenAI-related concepts (language modeling, computer

vision).

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related

technical field.

  • Experience building advanced GenAI (multi-step LLM, multi-agent systems, or

model context protocol (MCP) integrated with orchestration frameworks).

  • Working knowledge of leverage AI/ML, automation, and advanced technologies to

optimize workflows and enhance efficiency.

  • Demonstrated ability to lead and deliver on complex, ambiguous projects.

Excellent problem-solving, investigative, and technical leadership skills.

ABOUT THE JOB:

Google's software engineers develop the next-generation technologies that change

how billions of users connect, explore, and interact with information and one

another. Our products need to handle information at massive scale, and extend

well beyond web search. We're looking for engineers who bring fresh ideas from

all areas, including information retrieval, distributed computing, large-scale

system design, networking and data storage, security, artificial intelligence,

natural language processing, UI design and mobile; the list goes on and is

growing every day. As a software engineer, you will work on a specific project

critical to Google’s needs with opportunities to switch teams and projects as

you and our fast-paced business grow and evolve. We need our engineers to be

versatile, display leadership qualities and be enthusiastic to take on new

problems across the full-stack as we continue to push technology forward.

With your technical expertise you will manage project priorities, deadlines, and

deliverables. You will design, develop, test, deploy, maintain, and enhance

software solutions.

Google AI Science on Cloud (a collaboration across DeepMind, Research, and

Cloud) accelerates scientific breakthroughs, establishing Google as the premier

platform for complex industry problems.

As a Staff Software Engineer in the Research and Incubation team, you will be a

principal architect bridging AI research and enterprise production. You will

define technical roadmaps, establish architectural standards, and engineer

zero-to-one AI platforms. By managing multi-agent orchestration, reasoning

pipelines, and multimodal models, you will translate theoretical Machine

learning (ML) breakthroughs into highly optimized, scalable services, acting as

the key technical bridge between DeepMind, Research, Product Management (PM),

and enterprise partners.

The Google Cloud AI Research team addresses AI challenges motivated by Google

Cloud’s mission of bringing AI to tech, healthcare, finance, retail and many

other industries. We work on a range of unique problems focused on research

topics that maximize scientific and real-world impact, aiming to push the

state-of-the-art in AI and share findings with the broader research community.

We also collaborate with product teams to bring innovations to real-world impact

that benefits our customers. Individual pay is determined by factors including

job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $207000 - $300000 (USD) + 20% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google

[https://www.google.com/about/careers/applications/benefits/].

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Architect secure, highly cost-effective distributed systems and MLOps

pipelines on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for fine-tuning and serving frontier

models.

  • Translate AI/ML research into production-grade services, optimizing model

inference latency, throughput, and large-scale TPU/GPU fleet utilization.

  • Design robust, self-improving multi-agent architectures and cognitive

planning engines capable of executing complex, guardrailed workflows.

  • Shape Google Cloud’s AI roadmap by feeding operational insights and technical

gaps from incubation projects directly back to core engineering.

  • Mentor executive engineers across teams, driving a culture of rapid

prototyping, rigorous system design, and technical excellence.

Responsibilities

  • Architect secure, highly cost-effective distributed systems and MLOps pipelines on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for fine-tuning and serving frontier models.
  • Translate AI/ML research into production-grade services, optimizing model inference latency, throughput, and large-scale TPU/GPU fleet utilization.
  • Design robust, self-improving multi-agent architectures and cognitive planning engines capable of executing complex, guardrailed workflows.
  • Shape Google Cloud’s AI roadmap by feeding operational insights and technical gaps from incubation projects directly back to core engineering.
  • Mentor executive engineers across teams, driving a culture of rapid prototyping, rigorous system design, and technical excellence.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
  • 8 years of experience in software development.
  • 5 years of experience testing, and launching software products.
  • 3 years of experience with software design and architecture.
  • 5 years of experience leading ML design and optimizing ML infrastructure.
  • 2 years of experience with GenAI techniques.

Benefits

  • 20% bonus target
  • equity
  • comprehensive benefits package

Skills mentioned

PythonSystem DesignDistributed SystemsGoogle CloudMLOpsGenerative AIAI AgentsFine-TuningModel DeploymentPerformance Optimization

About Google

A problem isn't truly solved until it's solved for all. Googlers build products that help create opportunities for everyone, whether down the street or across the globe. Bring your insight, imagination and a healthy disregard for the impossible. Bring everything that makes you unique. Together, we can build for everyone. Check out our career opportunities at goo.gle/3DLEokh

Software Development10,001+ employeesMountain View, CA