Senior Staff Tech Lead, YouTube Shorts Discovery

Google LLC; San Bruno (CA); On-site; USD 262,000 - 364,000; Full time

Job summary

Google LLC in Mountain View, CA, and San Bruno, CA, seeks a Senior Staff Tech Lead for YouTube Shorts Discovery. You will lead AI/ML software engineers to advance discovery models, model deployment, and data-driven optimization at scale.

You will partner with product and research teams to translate business goals into scalable technical solutions, driving growth and user satisfaction while mentoring engineers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience in software development.
• 7 years leading technical project strategy, ML design and ML infrastructure.
• 5 years in design/architecture and launching software products.

Responsibilities

• Define technical strategy for YouTube Shorts discovery models.
• Provide technical leadership on large-scale recommendation models and ML infra.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, data science and research teams.
• Mentor junior engineers and align teams on goals and timelines.

Skills

Software leadership

ML system design

Team leadership

Model deployment

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Master’s or PhD (preferred)

Tools

ML infrastructure

Recommendation models

Job description

Senior Staff Tech Lead, YouTube Shorts Discovery

Share Senior Staff Tech Lead, YouTube Shorts Discovery

YouTube Mountain View, CA, USA ; San Bruno, CA, USA

X In most instances, this position requires in-person interviews as part of the hiring process.Note: By applying to this position you will have an opportunity to share your preferred working location from the following: Mountain View, CA, USA; San Bruno, CA, USA.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience in software development.
• 7 years of experience leading technical project strategy, ML design, and working with industry-scale ML infrastructure (e.g., model deployment, model evaluation, data processing, debugging, fine tuning).
• 5 years of experience with design and architecture; and testing/launching software products.
• 5 years of experience building and deploying recommendation systems models (retrieval, prediction, ranking, embedding) in production and experience building architecture in different modeling domains.

Preferred qualifications:

• Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
• 8 years of industry experience working on Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) recommendations.
• 8 years of industry experience in the recommendations technology domain.
• 5 years of experience in a technical leadership role leading project teams and setting technical direction.
• 5 years of experience with one or more of the following: large-scale recommendation or search systems, reinforcement learning (e.g., sequential decision making), ML infrastructure, or specialization in another ML field.

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.

About the job

In this role, you will tech-lead a team of AI/ML software engineers to grow the YouTube Shorts ecosystem by recommending Shorts that are aligned with users’ dynamically changing interests. The YouTube Shorts discovery models are a suite of large-scale AI/ML systems designed to model users’ interests by leveraging Google-wide data sources, understanding Shorts’ content and recommending the right content to the viewers. Designed for multi-task learning across various surfaces, these models are applied to numerous downstream tasks, including retrieval, user action predictions, rich user model generation, and knowledge distillation for training more compact models.

This role specializes in techniques—including LLMs, generative retrieval, and long-sequence modeling—to build foundational models for personalized retrieval and early-stage ranking.

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.

• Define technical strategy for enhancing YouTube Shorts discovery models and systems to accelerate viewer and creator growth while improving user satisfaction.
• Provide technical leadership on projects; design, develop, test, and deploy large-scale recommendation models, novel model architectures, and optimize ML infrastructure to drive the growth of the Shorts ecosystem.
• Partner with engineering, product, data-science, and research teams to convert business goals into scalable technical solutions that grow the Shorts ecosystem.
• Facilitate alignment and clarity across teams on goals, prioritization, outcomes, and timelines. Mentor and influence to uplevel junior engineers on the team.

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.

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 .