Principal Engineer, Cloud Surfaces

Google; Kirkland (WA); On-site; USD 307,000 - 427,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Job summary

Google is seeking a Principal Engineer for the Cloud Surfaces team to drive technical strategy, platform acceleration, and AI-native experiences across Google Cloud products. You will mentor tech leads, design scalable architectures, and coordinate with product teams to enable rapid innovation.

The role emphasizes leadership, platform-wide impact, and collaboration with stakeholders across Google Cloud, with multiple locations including Sunnyvale, Kirkland, New York, and San Francisco.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field or equivalent practical experience.
• 15 years of experience as a Software Engineering leader with experience in full stack web development.
• Experience in web, mobile, and SDK/CLI development.

Responsibilities

• Partner with cross-functional leadership to align a multi-year roadmap prioritizing investments in Cloud Surfaces experiences.
• Create scalable, reliable, secure designs enabling internal platform stakeholders and AI-powered UI on web and mobile; accelerate SDK and CLI development.
• Mentor senior tech leaders and foster a culture of engineering growth and collaboration.
• Align engineering teams behind a shared long-term strategy to maximize platform reusability and impact.

Skills

Full stack web development

Web/mobile/SDK development

Engineering leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Master's or PhD in Computer Science or related field

Tools

gcloud CLI

Cloud SDK

REST APIs

Job description

In accordance with Washington state law, we are highlighting our comprehensive benefits package, which is available to all eligible US based employees. Benefits for this role include:

• Health, dental, vision, life, disability insurance
• Retirement Benefits: 401(k) with company match
• Paid Time Off: 20 days of vacation per year, accruing at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period for the first five years of employment
• Sick Time: 40 hours/year (increased to 69 hours/year for Seattle) including 5 discretionary sick days per instance
• Maternity Leave (Short-Term Disability + Baby Bonding): 28-30 weeks
• Baby Bonding Leave: 18 weeks
• Holidays: 13 paid days per year

Applicants in San Francisco: Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.
Note: By applying to this position you will have an opportunity to share your preferred working location from the following: Sunnyvale, CA, USA; Kirkland, WA, USA; New York, NY, USA; San Francisco, CA, USA.

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field or equivalent practical experience
• 15 years of experience as a Software Engineering leader with experience in full stack web development
• Experience in web, mobile, and SDK/CLI development

Preferred qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in Computer Science or related field
• Experience leading initiatives, developing policies, and driving thought leadership for internal developer platforms and large-scale systems
• Experience with driving alignment with API resource model and data models, reconciling existing systems with new ones
• Experience with inter-team/cross-functional leadership
• Ability to build and drive technical roadmap and design with a broader engineering organization
• Awareness of industry trends in AI and ML technologies and how to apply those at scale to both the team’s product and platform investments

About The Job

The Cloud Surfaces team is committed to delivering a seamless and enjoyable user experience across all Google Cloud products and meeting our customers where they are. We strive for consistency across channels as we drive towards a unified, AI Native experience. Our focus is on addressing the challenges of creating cohesive experiences due to limitations in modularity and composability, architectural complexities, and the need for rapid innovation. We aim to achieve this through a multichannel outlook that promotes shared product outlook, UX design, and coordinated roadmaps, working across the product teams that make up Google Cloud. The surfaces we cover include the Console Platform, Cloud SDK, gcloud CLI, and Cloud Mobile Application. As Principal Engineer, you will collaborate to create, oversee, and support technical outlook and strategy for this effort, with a deep focus on platform acceleration for product teams, supporting new, innovative AI Native experiences, and extending the reach of Google Cloud. In this role, you will utilize deep technical expertise in software engineering, platform building, front-end web and mobile development, and the desire to mentor tech leads and build a strong organizational bench. Beyond technical delivery, you possess the relationship-building skills to influence across boundaries. You'll partner closely with various product teams across Google Cloud. In addition, you will work with other stakeholders across the company to understand constraints and requirements, and translate them into technical designs and implementations. Google Cloud accelerates every organization’s ability to digitally transform its business and industry. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google’s cutting-edge technology, and tools that help developers build more sustainably. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems. Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. US: $307000 - $427000 (USD) + 30% bonus target + equity + benefits.

Responsibilities

Learn more about benefits at Google .

• Partner with cross-functional leadership (e.g., product managers, UX, engineering managers, tech leaders, technical program managers) and organizations to align on a multi-year roadmap that prioritizes the highest-leverage investments and enables the transformation of the Cloud Surfaces experiences
• Create scalable, reliable, secure, and efficient designs that enable internal platform stakeholders to effectively build on, including supporting next generation, AI powered UI experiences on web and mobile, and accelerating SDK and CLI development.
• Raise the organization's collective technical bar by actively mentoring senior tech leaders and fostering a culture of engineering, peer-growth, and collaborative problem-solving.
• Act as a technical bridge across product boundaries, aligning engineering teams and stakeholders behind a shared strategy for both long-term innovation and near term tactical execution with a focus on platform reusability.

Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Google's EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form .