Senior Staff Software Engineer, GKE AI Data

Google; Kirkland (WA); Hybrid; USD 262,000 - 364,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, vision, life, and disb

401(k) with company match

Paid time off: 20 days vacation/year

Sick time: 40 hours/year (69 inSeattle

Maternity leave: 28-30 weeks

Baby Bonding leave: 18 weeks

Holidays: 13 paid days

Job summary

Google is seeking software engineers to advance AI/ML storage solutions within the GKE AI Data team, shaping data pipelines and scalable architectures for large-scale workloads.

The role emphasizes collaboration across product, engineering and research, with opportunities to influence open-source standards and contribute to Kubernetes ecosystem initiatives.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience programming in C++.
• 5 years of experience with design and architecture; and testing/launching software products.

Responsibilities

• Guide the architectural direction for GKE AI Data ensuring a scalable, performant and efficient storage solution for AI-ML workloads running on K8s across block, file and object storage.
• Drive storage solutions for evolving AI/ML issues, including KV Caching, fast model loading, and re-envisioning storage for agentic workloads (e.g., fast suspend/resume and shared multi-agent storage).
• Partner with multiple storage teams in google cloud platform (GCP) to drive alignment and clarity around strategy and execution.
• Lead the broader Kubernetes ecosystem and Open Source Software (OSS) community, driving key upstream initiatives to establish industry standards for storage solutions.
• Imagine, architect, and lead the technical execution of industry-defining standards through both direct, technical work and by mentoring and guiding teams of engineers.

Skills

C++ programming

System design

Software testing

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Job description

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; Kirkland, WA, USA; Sunnyvale, CA, USA.

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience programming in C++.
• 5 years of experience with design and architecture; and testing/launching software products.

Preferred qualifications

• Deep expertise in AI/ML infrastructure, specifically regarding storage and caching solutions.
• Demonstrated track record of significant technical contributions to the Kubernetes open-source project or related CNCF or PyTorch AI/ML projects.
• Demonstrated track record of influencing cross-functional teams (Product, Engineering, Research) to deliver complex technical outcomes.

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.

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is the industry standard for container orchestration and the core of Google Cloud’s modernization strategy. We are now embarking on a mission to reinvent GKE and Kubernetes as the premier substrate for the next generation of AI-ML workloads. The GKE AI Data organization is a critical, high-growth technical domain core to GKE’s business. The team is deeply involved in building storage solutions and data pipelines for the AI-ML workloads including training, inference, RL and agentic workflows.

In this role, you will solve complex storage problems through solutions working at the intersection of K8s (kubernetes), AI-ML and Storage. You will drive the agenda in close collaboration with leads across other storage organizations inside Google and in Open Source.

The Google Cloud AI Research team addresses AI challenges motivated by Google Cloud’s mission of bringing AI to tech, healthcare, finance, retail and many other industries. We work on a range of unique problems focused on research topics that maximize scientific and real-world impact, aiming to push the state-of-the-art in AI and share findings with the broader research community. We also collaborate with product teams to bring innovations to real-world impact that benefits our customers. 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

Responsibilities

• Guide the architectural direction for GKE AI Data ensuring a scalable, performant and efficient storage solution for AI-ML workloads running on K8s across block, file and object storage.
• Drive storage solutions for evolving AI/ML issues, including KV Caching, fast model loading, and re-envisioning storage for agentic workloads (e.g., fast suspend/resume and shared multi-agent storage).
• Partner with multiple storage teams in google cloud platform (GCP) to drive alignment and clarity around strategy and execution.
• Lead the broader Kubernetes ecosystem and Open Source Software (OSS) community, driving key upstream initiatives to establish industry standards for storage solutions.
• Imagine, architect, and lead the technical execution of industry-defining standards through both direct, technical work and by mentoring and guiding teams of engineers.

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 .