Senior Software Engineer, Search, QSpam

Google; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 174,000 - 252,000; Full time

Job summary

Google’s software engineers develop next-generation technologies that change how billions connect and interact with information. This role focuses on building scalable systems, applying AI/ML, and ensuring high-quality software for trusted services in a fast-paced environment.

The QSpam team maintains the integrity of Google Search by detecting and filtering spammy traffic in QLogs, leveraging AI/ML and LLMs to improve detection and analyst efficiency.

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.
• 2 years of experience with large-scale data processing, algorithms, and statistics.
• Experience integrating generative AI tools or LLM interfaces into workflows.

Responsibilities

• Utilize AI tools and technologies; be prepared to discuss your knowledge and use of AI tools during the hiring process. Write and test product or system development code.
• Drive the design, development, and maintenance of large-scale, high-performance systems and algorithms for identifying and filtering spam and inorganic activity within QLogs, including heuristic, ML-based, and LLM-powered solutions.
• Contribute to existing documentation or educational content and adapt content based on product/program updates and user feedback.
• Triage product or system issues and debug/track/resolve by analyzing the sources of issues and the impact on hardware, network, or service operations and quality.
• Review code developed by other developers and provide feedback to ensure best practices (e.g., style guidelines, checking code in, accuracy, testability, and efficiency).

Skills

Software development

Testing & launching

Software design

Architecture

Large-scale infra

Distributed systems

Compute/storage/hardware

Data processing

AI integration

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Job description

In most instances, this position requires in-person interviews as part of the hiring process.

Minimum 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.
• 2 years of experience with large-scale data processing, algorithms, and statistics.
• Experience integrating generative AI tools or LLM interfaces into workflows.

Preferred qualifications:

• Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science or related technical field.
• 5 years of experience with data structures and algorithms.
• 2 years of experience with Machine Learning, Spam Detection, Anomaly Detection, and Search Quality.
• 1 year of experience in a technical leadership role.
• Experience developing accessible technologies.

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 QSpam team is a vital part of Search Quality, dedicated to maintaining the integrity and reliability of Google Search. Our mission is to detect and filter inorganic and spammy traffic from QLogs, ensuring that downstream systems and products like Search Ranking, Suggest, Glue, Chrome, and Geo rely on high-quality, organic user session data. We build and operate large-scale pipelines and sophisticated algorithms to combat evolving spam techniques and protect the user experience. Our work increasingly involves leveraging advanced AI and Machine Learning techniques, including LLMs, to enhance our detection capabilities and improve analyst efficiency.

In Google Search, we're reimagining what it means to search for information – any way and anywhere. To do that, we need to solve complex engineering challenges and expand our infrastructure, while maintaining a universally accessible and useful experience that people around the world rely on. In joining the Search team, you'll have an opportunity to make an impact on billions of people globally.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

Responsibilities

• Utilize AI tools and technologies; be prepared to discuss your knowledge and use of AI tools during the hiring process. Write and test product or system development code.
• Drive the design, development, and maintenance of large-scale, high-performance systems and algorithms for identifying and filtering spam and inorganic activity within QLogs, including heuristic, ML-based, and LLM-powered solutions.
• Contribute to existing documentation or educational content and adapt content based on product/program updates and user feedback.
• Triage product or system issues and debug/track/resolve by analyzing the sources of issues and the impact on hardware, network, or service operations and quality.
• Review code developed by other developers and provide feedback to ensure best practices (e.g., style guidelines, checking code in, accuracy, testability, and efficiency).

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.