Senior Software Engineer, Rate Limiting and Token Management

Google Inc.; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 174,000 - 252,000; Full time

Job summary

Google Sunnyvale, CA, USA is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for Rate Limiting and Token Management to design scalable infrastructure and governance for AI workloads.

You will work on LLM token quota management, backend protection, and fair-share scheduling across Cloud services. The role requires 5+ years of software development and 3+ years in distributed systems, with Java/C++ as preferred skills.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience with software development in one or more programming languages.
• 3 years of experience testing, maintaining, or launching software products, and 1 year of experience with software design and architecture.
• 3 years of experience with developing large-scale infrastructure, distributed systems or networks, or experience with compute technologies, storage or hardware architecture.

Responsibilities

• Design and operate globally distributed systems paths that handle millions of queries across multiple regions.
• Build distributed scheduling, dynamic reservation, and fair-sharing tuned to how LLMs actually behave — token-by-token streaming, bursty agent loops, speculative decoding, and prompt caching.
• Build self-healing systems with solid failover, fast coordination, and the telemetry needed to hit five-nines (99.999%) availability.
• Set the architectural direction for token orchestration and distribution across Cloud.

Skills

5+ years software development

3+ years testing/maintaining/launching

3+ years distributed systems

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Master’s degree or PhD in CS or related field

Tools

Java

C/C++

Generative AI

Job description

Senior Software Engineer, Rate Limiting and Token Management

Google Sunnyvale, CA, USA

Mid

Experience driving progress, solving problems, and mentoring more junior team members; deeper expertise and applied knowledge within relevant area.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 5 years of experience with software development in one or more programming languages.
• 3 years of experience testing, maintaining, or launching software products, and 1 year of experience with software design and architecture.
• 3 years of experience with developing large-scale infrastructure, distributed systems or networks, or experience with compute technologies, storage or hardware architecture.

Preferred qualifications:

• Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science, or a related technical field.
• 5 years of experience with data structures and algorithms.
• 1 year of experience in a technical leadership role.
• Experience in one or more of the following: Java, C/C++.
• Experience in Generative AI.

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.

The Agent Cloud initiative is evolving Google Cloud to handle the unique challenges of non-deterministic AI agents and workloads. Our team bridges the gap between traditional Cloud networking and the new agentic ecosystem by leveraging traditional infrastructure systems like Bouncer, QuotaServer, QuotaStore to provide quota and rate limiting infrastructure under Agent Gateway, the central conduit securing and governing agent-to-agent and agent-to-tool communications.

You will be handling critical industry challenges: LLM token quota management and backend overload protection. You will design the infrastructure that prevents runaway AI costs, ensures fair share of LLM capacity, and protects enterprise AI agents from DDoS and abuse.

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: $174000 - $252000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.

• Design and operate globally distributed systems paths that handle millions of queries across multiple regions.
• Build distributed scheduling, dynamic reservation, and fair-sharing tuned to how LLMs actually behave — token-by-token streaming, bursty agent loops, speculative decoding, and prompt caching.
• Build self-healing systems with solid failover, fast coordination, and the telemetry needed to hit five-nines (99.999%) availability.
• Set the architectural direction for token orchestration and distribution across Cloud.

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.

To all recruitment agencies: Google does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Google employees, or any other organization location. Google is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

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.