Senior Staff Tech Lead, YouTube Advanced Capabilities

Socket.dev; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 262,000 - 364,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus target

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Google’s YouTube Advanced Capabilities team seeks a Software Engineer with deep GenAI expertise to own generation quality metrics and drive cross‑functional strategy with PM, UX, and GDM. You will lead production of video generation and agentic editing models, guiding TLs and senior ICs while aligning with YouTube product teams to deliver impactful creator capabilities.

You will shape technical roadmaps, oversee high‑priority executions, and collaborate across organizations to deploy

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience in software development.
• 2 years of experience with applied ML and GenAI/agentic systems.
• Experience in building, productionizing, and scaling ML systems—specifically Video Generation models, agentic systems, agent benchmarking, agent AutoRaters, or LLM/agent training pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Direct and take ownership of key GenAI creation quality and product metrics for the team, translating data‑backed insights into concrete engineering goals.
• Drive product vision and cross‑organizational technical strategy by partnering with PM and UX to deliver high‑impact creator capabilities, while leading the technical partnership with GDM to deploy state‑of‑the‑art video generation and agentic editing workflows across YouTube.
• Directly lead the technical execution of high‑priority projects.
• Architect and lead the production landing of the joint YouTube + GDM agentic video editing and video generation models.
• Offer technical guidance, navigate organizational complexities across YouTube/GDM partnerships and various YouTube product teams, and empower fellow TLs and senior ICs to succeed.

Skills

Software development

Applied ML

GenAI / agentic systems

Video generation models

Video editing agents

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Job description

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience in software development.
  
• 2 years of experience with applied ML and GenAI/agentic systems.
• Experience in building, productionizing, and scaling machine learning systems—specifically Video Generation models, agentic systems, agent benchmarking, agent AutoRaters, or LLM/agent training pipelines.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience architecting and evaluating industry-leading Video Editing Agents and multi-modal agent workflows.
• Proven ability to translate high‑level product strategy into actionable technical roadmaps and engineering metrics.
• Proven ability to navigate cross‑functional/cross‑organization complexities, partner closely with PM and UX, collaborate with GDM researchers, manage senior stakeholders, and mentor high‑performing engineers.
• Strong business acumen—understanding unit economics, return on computation, and the intersection of model quality with user engagement metrics.

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.

With your technical expertise you will manage project priorities, deadlines, and deliverables. You will design, develop, test, deploy, maintain, and enhance software solutions.

GenAI is reshaping how humanity creates and connects, and the YouTube Advanced Capabilities team is at the very heart of that transformation: building video generation and editing models to bring next‑generation capabilities directly to YouTube. Our work increasingly centers on video generation and agentic video editing systems—requiring deep expertise in foundational technical pillars such as video generation modeling, eval and efficiency, agent benchmarking, agent AutoRaters, and sophisticated agent training pipelines. We operate in deep, strategic partnership with DeepMind (GDM) researchers as well as YouTube PM and UX teams to rapidly land state‑of‑the‑art models and agentic capabilities into production, unlocking creative potential for everyone.

At YouTube, we believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share, and build community through our stories. We work together to give everyone the power to share their story, explore what they love, and connect with one another in the process. Working at the intersection of cutting‑edge technology and boundless creativity, we move at the speed of culture with a shared goal to show people the world. We explore new ideas, solve real problems, and have fun — and we do it all together.

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:

• Direct and take ownership of key GenAI creation quality and product metrics for the team, translating data‑backed insights into concrete engineering goals.
• Drive product vision and cross‑organizational technical strategy by partnering with PM and UX to deliver high‑impact creator capabilities, while leading the technical partnership with GDM to deploy state‑of‑the‑art video generation and agentic editing workflows across YouTube.
• Directly lead the technical execution of high‑priority projects.
• Architect and lead the production landing of the joint YouTube + GDM agentic video editing and video generation models.
• Offer technical guidance, navigate organizational complexities across YouTube/GDM partnerships and various YouTube product teams, and empower fellow TLs and senior ICs to succeed.