Senior Software Engineering Manager, Google Cloud Storage Semantic Search

Google; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 262,000 - 364,000; Full time

Job summary

Google is seeking a Software Engineering Manager to lead multiple teams across information retrieval, AI, NLP, and distributed systems. You will guide technical strategy, manage engineers, and ensure alignment with product goals and security requirements.

You will oversee large-scale ML infrastructure projects, set priorities, and coach engineers while collaborating with cross-functional partners and executives globally.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience with distributed storage systems, large-scale databases, or high-throughput pipelines.
• 7 years leading technical project strategy, ML design, and ML infra optimization.
• 5 years in people management or team leadership.
• 5 years in one of: Speech/Audio ML, RL, ML infrastructure, or related ML field.

Responsibilities

• Set and communicate team priorities aligned with organizational goals.
• Meet with individuals to discuss performance and development, providing feedback.
• Develop long-term technical direction and roadmap for multiple teams.
• Oversee system designs and review code to solve complex problems.
• Drive ML infrastructure optimization and cross-team solution design.

Skills

Distributed storage

ML infrastructure

Team leadership

Model deployment

Speech/Audio ML

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering/CS or related field

Tools

ScaNN

HNSW

Elasticsearch/OpenSearch

Vector Search platforms

Job description

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience with distributed storage systems, large - scale database systems, or high-throughput batch/stream processing pipelines.
• 7 years of experience leading technical project strategy, ML design, and optimizing industry-scale ML infrastructure (e.g., model deployment, model evaluation, data processing, debugging, fine tuning).
• 5 years of experience with one or more of the following: Speech/audio (e.g., technology duplicating and responding to the human voice), reinforcement learning (e.g., sequential decision making), ML infrastructure, or specialization in another ML field.
• 5 years of experience in a people management or team leadership role.

Preferred qualifications:

• Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
• 5 years of experience working in a complex, matrixed organization.
• Experience building or operating vector databases, vector search indices (e.g., ScaNN, HNSW, IVF), or search platforms (e.g., Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Vector Search).
• Proven track record of delivering tier-0 enterprise cloud services with strict security, regionalization, and compliance requirements.
• Exceptional communication skills with a demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional partner teams, executive leadership, and customer design partners.

About the job

Like Google's own ambitions, the work of a Software Engineer goes beyond just Search. Software Engineering Managers have not only the technical expertise to take on and provide technical leadership to major projects, but also manage a team of Engineers. You not only optimize your own code but make sure Engineers are able to optimize theirs. As a Software Engineering Manager you manage your project goals, contribute to product strategy and help develop your team. Teams work all across the company, in areas such as information retrieval, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, distributed computing, large-scale system design, networking, security, data compression, user interface design; the list goes on and is growing every day. Operating with scale and speed, our exceptional software engineers are just getting started -- and as a manager, you guide the way.

With technical and leadership expertise, you manage engineers across multiple teams and locations, a large product budget and oversee the deployment of large-scale projects across multiple sites internationally.

Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $262000 - $364000 (USD) + 25% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Set and communicate team priorities that support the broader organization's goals. Align strategy, processes, and decision-making across teams.
• Set clear expectations with individuals based on their level and role and aligned to the broader organization's goals. Meet regularly with individuals to discuss performance and development and provide feedback and coaching.
• Develop the long-term technical direction and roadmap within, and often beyond, the scope of your teams. Evolve the roadmap to meet anticipated future requirements and infrastructure needs.
• Oversee systems designs within the scope of the broader area, and review product or system development code to solve ambiguous problems.
• Drive technical project strategy, lead large-scale ML infrastructure optimization, and oversee the design and implementation of solutions across multiple specialized ML areas.

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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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