Engineering Leader

Fractal; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 191,000 - 257,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Disability plans

401(k) plan

11 paid holidays

Parental Leave

Job summary

Fractal, a strategic AI partner to Fortune 500 companies, seeks an Engineering Lead with deep GCP and Google 1P ecosystem expertise to drive architecture and delivery across large-scale programs.

You will mentor teams, define long-term technology roadmaps, and ensure reliable, scalable platform solutions while balancing cost, performance, and stakeholder needs.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering, data engineering, or platform engineering experience.
• Proven leadership as an Engineering Lead, Technical Lead, Staff Engineer, or Principal Engineer.
• Hands-on expertise with BigQuery, Dataflow, GKE, and serverless technologies.
• Proficiency in Python and Go.
• Experience with SQL, Spanner, and distributed data systems.
• Familiarity with DevOps and MLOps practices.
• Preference for candidates with Google 1P ecosystem exposure.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of strategic client programs.
• Lead architecture, design, and governance for data, analytics, AI/ML platforms.
• Mentor engineers and technical leads across geographies.
• Define roadmaps, drive engineering standards, and ensure delivery quality.

Skills

Senior leadership

GCP expert

Distributed systems

Python

Go

Data engineering

AI/ML awareness

Technical architecture

Tools

BigQuery

Dataflow

GKE

Serverless

Job description

Fractal is a strategic AI partner to Fortune 500 companies with a vision to power every human decision in the enterprise. Fractal is building a world where individual choices, freedom, and diversity are the greatest assets; an ecosystem where human imagination is at the heart of every decision. Where no possibility is written off, only challenged to get better. We believe that a true Fractalite is the one who empowers imagination with intelligence. Fractal has been featured as a Great Place to Work by The Economic Times in partnership with the Great Place to Work® Institute and recognized as a ‘Cool Vendor’ and a ‘Vendor to Watch’ by Gartner.

Please visit Fractal | Intelligence for Imagination for more information about Fractal.

Role Overview

We are seeking a highly experienced Engineering Lead with deep expertise across both Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Google's internal First-Party (1P) Engineering Ecosystem.

This role goes beyond solution architecture. The ideal candidate will be a hands-on technical leader capable of driving architecture, engineering execution, delivery governance, reliability, and innovation across large-scale enterprise programs. You will serve as the technical authority for clients while mentoring engineering teams and ensuring delivery excellence.

The ideal candidate will have:

• 10+ years of software engineering and distributed systems experience.
• Strong hands-on expertise building large-scale platforms using GCP.
• Prior Google experience or substantial exposure to Google's 1P ecosystem.
• Experience leading teams as a Technical Lead (TL) or Engineering Lead.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, data platforms, AI/ML systems, and cloud-native architectures.
• Proven ability to bridge technical strategy with hands-on execution.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Architecture & Vision

• Define long-term technology roadmaps aligned with business objectives.
• Lead architecture and design for data, analytics, AI/ML, and platform engineering initiatives.
• Design scalable and resilient systems leveraging:
• BigQuery
• Dataflow
• Event-driven and microservices architectures
• Drive engineering standards, code quality, platform governance, and architectural consistency.
• Make critical technology decisions considering scalability, reliability, maintainability, and cost efficiency.
• Translate business requirements into technical specifications and executable engineering plans.

First-Party Google Engineering Expertise

Candidates with prior Google experience should demonstrate deep working knowledge of Google's internal engineering ecosystem, including:

Compute, Serving & Deployment

• Strong understanding of Borg and large-scale cluster orchestration principles.
• Experience with Google's service deployment ecosystem including Boq, Pods, and microservice-based architectures.
• Knowledge of capacity planning, resource management, rollout strategies, and production deployment processes.

Storage & Data Infrastructure

• Spanner
• Placer
• Understanding of data consistency, replication, distributed transactions, and geo-distributed storage systems.

Development Ecosystem

• Deep familiarity with:
• google3
• CitC (Clients in the Cloud)
• Experience managing complex dependency structures and large-scale codebases.
• Strong working knowledge of:
• BUILD files
• Build optimization
• Experience with Google's:
• Code review culture
• Readability standards
• Ability to establish engineering excellence through code quality, testing, and design reviews.
• Serve as the technical quality bar for the program.

Observability & Reliability

• Experience with reliability engineering practices.
• Familiarity with:
• Monarch
• Dapper
• Production monitoring
• Distributed tracing
• Service health management
• Familiarity with Google internal AI development tooling and developer productivity systems.
• Experience using AI-assisted development practices to improve engineering velocity and quality.
• Exposure to tools such as JetSki and modern GenAI-enabled software development workflows is preferred.

Delivery Leadership

• Own end-to-end delivery of strategic client programs.
• Ensure successful execution across architecture, engineering, testing, deployment, and production support.
• Lead distributed teams across multiple geographies.
• Drive governance, risk mitigation, dependency management, and stakeholder communication.
• Step into hands-on engineering during critical program phases when necessary.
• Balance short-term delivery goals with long-term platform sustainability.
• Serve as trusted technical advisor to senior client stakeholders.
• Lead architecture reviews, strategy discussions, and executive presentations.
• Translate complex technical concepts for both engineering and business audiences.
• Identify opportunities to drive innovation and business impact through technology.

Technical Leadership & Team Development

A successful Engineering Lead will demonstrate:

Technical Vision

• Convert ambiguous business problems into executable technical solutions.
• Create clear engineering roadmaps and architectural direction.

Team Enablement

• Identify roadblocks before they impact delivery.
• Manage dependencies across engineering, product, security, infrastructure, and platform teams.
• Drive alignment and execution across multiple stakeholders.
• Mentor engineers and technical leads.
• Delegate effectively while maintaining accountability.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, learning, and innovation.
• Help engineers grow through coaching, design reviews, and stretch opportunities.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering, data engineering, or platform engineering experience.
• Proven leadership as an Engineering Lead, Technical Lead, Staff Engineer, or Principal Engineer.

Hands-on expertise with:

• BigQuery
• Dataflow
• GKE
• Serverless technologies

Programming

Strong proficiency in:

• Python
• Go

Data Systems

Experience with:

• SQL
• PLX
• Dremel
• Spanner

DevOps & MLOps

• Infrastructure as Code
• Containerization
• Automated testing
• MLOps platforms

Preferred Google Experience

Strong preference for candidates with:

• Experience building and operating systems inside the Google 1P ecosystem.
• Exposure to Borg, Spanner, Blaze, Monarch, Dapper, google3, Critique, and related internal tooling.

Pay:

The wage range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled. At Fractal, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the starting base range is: $225,000. In addition, you may be eligible for a discretionary bonus for the current performance period.

As a full-time employee of the company or as an hourly employee working more than 30 hours per week, you will be eligible to participate in the health, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability plans in accordance with the plan documents, which may be amended from time to time. You will be eligible for benefits on the first day of Employment with the Company. In addition, you are eligible to participate in the Company 401(k) Plan after 30 days of employment, in accordance with the applicable plan terms. The Company provides 11 paid holidays and 12 weeks of Parental Leave. We also follow a “free time” PTO policy, allowing you the flexibility to take the time needed for either sick time or vacation.

Fractal provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.