Principal Engineer, Memory Safety and Agentic Modernization

Socket.dev; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 307,000 - 427,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Bonus target

Benefits package

Job summary

Google Cloud is seeking a Principal Engineer for Memory Safety and Agentic Modernization to lead the architectural strategy for migrating the virtualization stack from C/C++ to secure-by-design Rust. You will drive agentic coding workflows, partner with AI teams, and ensure high-assurance, high-performance virtualization across a massive compute fleet.

In this role, you will oversee formal verification efforts, mentor engineers, and be the primary technical liaison for Rust adoption across the

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 15 years of professional software development experience, or 13 with advanced degree.
• Experience architecting and developing low-level systems software.
• Experience with Rust, C, and C++.

Responsibilities

• Lead architectural strategy for migrating virtualization stack to Rust.
• Collaborate with AI teams to design agentic coding tools for automated migration and testing.
• Drive memory-safe transformation of core data plane and management daemons.
• Integrate formal verification methods to prove program correctness.
• Act as PoC and mentor engineers to accelerate velocity.

Skills

Rust

C

C++

Low-level systems

Software architecture

Experience with large code migrations

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

Lean

TLA+

Verus

Job description

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• 15 years of professional software development experience, or 13 years with an advanced degree
• Experience architecting and developing low-level systems software (e.g., operating systems, kernels, hypervisors, runtime environments, or compilers)
• Experience with Rust, C, and C++

Preferred qualifications:

• Advanced degree (e.g., Master's or PhD) in Computer Science or a related field
• 20 years of software experience driving large-scale memory-safe language migrations
• Experience with formal verification systems and proof assistants (e.g., Lean, TLA+, or Verus)
• Experience with AI-assisted development, automated refactoring, and leading technical teams
• Deep specialization in hypervisor internals (e.g, KVM, QEMU), VMMs, and hardware virtualization/security

About the job:

As a Principal Engineer for Memory Safety and Agentic Modernization, you will serve as the premier technical authority and single point of contact (PoC) for Google Cloud’s virtualization memory safety strategy and AI-driven agentic coding practices. You will lead the architectural strategy to transition the foundational virtualization stack and core data plane and management daemons from C/C++ to secure-by-design Rust, focusing on enhancing the security and resilience of the virtualization stack generally.

In this role, you will be responsible for orchestrating these migrations across a massive compute fleet, mitigating high-stakes guest-to-host escapes and insider threat vectors, and ensuring near bare-metal performance and absolute reliability for mission-critical enterprise workloads. Crucially, you will drive agentic coding workflows—partnering with infrastructure AI teams to design, evaluate, and scale agentic code transformation, including C++-to-Rust code translation, automated code generation and refactoring, and AI-assisted behavioral test synthesis. You will also lead the incorporation of advanced formal verification tools (e.g., Lean, TLA+, Verus) to prove program correctness

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

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the architectural strategy and technical execution for migrating the virtualization stack.
• Partner with internal AI engineering teams to design and deploy agentic coding tools and methodologies to automate C/C++ to Rust migration, generate behavioral tests, and execute large-scale automated refactoring.
• Drive the systems security roadmap, targeting critical data plane and control plane services for memory-safe transformation.
• Integrate formal methods, theorem-proving platforms (e.g., Lean, TLA+), and compile-time static guarantees to prove program correctness and ensure that unsafe Rust code is verified as safe.
• Serve as the dedicated single point of contact (PoC) and technical leader for Rust and agentic coding across the organization, mentoring and upskilling the engineering workforce to drive an engineering velocity multiplier.