Principal Engineer, Memory Safety and Agentic Modernization

Google Inc.; Seattle, Sunnyvale (WA, CA); On-site; USD 307,000 - 427,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) with company match

PTO 20 days/year (Seattle 69 hours)

Sick time 69 hours/year Seattle

Maternity leave 28-30 weeks

Baby bonding leave 18 weeks

13 paid holidays

Job summary

Google Cloud is seeking a Principal Engineer for Memory Safety and Agentic Modernization in Seattle or Sunnyvale to drive a major migration from C/C++ to Rust across the virtualization stack.

You will lead architectural strategy, collaborate with AI teams to automate migrations, and implement formal verification to ensure safety and reliability in mission-critical workloads.

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++.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architectural strategy 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.

Skills

Rust

C

C++

Low-level systems

Memory safety migration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering, or equivalent

Tools

Lean

TLA+

Verus

KVM

Job description

Principal Engineer, Memory Safety and Agentic Modernization

X 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

Note: By applying to this position you will have an opportunity to share your preferred working location from the following: Seattle, WA, USA; Sunnyvale, CA, USA.

• 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 .

• 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.

Google is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to building a workforce that is representative of the users we serve, creating a culture of belonging, and providing an equal employment opportunity regardless of race, creed, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), expecting or parents-to-be, criminal histories consistent with legal requirements, or any other basis protected by law. See also Google's EEO Policy , Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal , Belonging at Google , and How we hire .

Google is a global company and, in order to facilitate efficient collaboration and communication globally, English proficiency is a requirement for all roles unless stated otherwise in the job posting.

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Equity is granted exclusively and discretionarily by Alphabet Inc. on the basis of an agreement concluded between you and Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. is your sole contractual partner with respect to equity grants. GSU grants are not guaranteed, are discretionary, are subject to approval by the Alphabet Inc. board of directors or its delegate, the terms of the relevant Alphabet Inc. stock plan, and your grant agreement. They have no impact on statutory payments. Current or past grants do not confer an acquired right.