Senior System Performance Engineer, XR

Google; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 207,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Sick leave

Maternity leave

Baby bonding leave

Paid holidays

Job summary

Google is seeking a senior XR System Performance Engineer to optimize the performance of XR hardware and software across the Glasses OS stack. You will identify bottlenecks and implement end-to-end optimizations under tight latency, power, and thermal constraints.

You will design strategies for boot loaders, kernels, IPC, graphics, cameras and sensors, and drive system-wide performance improvements while collaborating with cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of software development experience in C++ or Java.
• 5 years testing and launching software products.
• 5 years of experience with performance, large-scale systems data analysis, visualization tools, or debugging.
• 3 years of software design and architecture.

Responsibilities

• Architect, guide, and vet systems designs with focus on end-to-end performance optimizations.
• Analyze performance of workloads from high-level APIs to low-level architecture details.
• Communicate decisions through architecture and design documents and code.
• Mentor team members on architecture, design, debugging, and best practices.
• Review code and contribute to engineering productivity and processes.

Skills

XR performance

System optimization

Large-scale systems

Architecture & design

Debugging & profiling

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Job description

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

In accordance with Washington state law, we are highlighting our comprehensive benefits package, which is available to all eligible US based employees.

• 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: San Jose, CA, USA; Seattle, WA, USA.

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience in software development programming in C++ or Java.
• 5 years of experience testing, and launching software products.
• 5 years of experience with performance, large-scale systems data analysis, visualization tools, or debugging.
• 3 years of experience with software design and architecture.

Preferred qualifications

• Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
• 8 years of experience with data structures and algorithms.
• 3 years of experience in a technical leadership role leading project teams and setting technical direction.
• 3 years of experience working in a complex, matrixed organization involving cross-functional, or cross-business projects.
• Experience with system performance benchmarks, methodologies, and profiling/analysis using industry-standard tools (e.g., Perfetto, GDB, ftrace).

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.

XR System Performance Engineer, you will play a critical role in ensuring the performance excellence of XR hardware and software. You will design strategies to identify bottlenecks and implement optimizations that maintain system stability, responsiveness, and efficiency under tight latency, power, and thermal constraints.

You will bring interest and experience in optimizing microXR glasses OS and Glasses Core software stack for the audio and display smart glasses product family. Your interests will span the entire operating systems stack: boot loaders, kernels, IPC mechanisms, graphics, window composition, cameras and sensors, application frameworks, etc.

For decades, the computing revolution has reshaped our world driven by breakthroughs in compute, connectivity, mobile, and now, AI. Google's XR team is at the forefront of the next major leap – the convergence of AI and XR. This is more than just new devices – it's about reimagining how we interact with the world around us. We're building a future where lightweight XR devices like smart glasses and headsets pair with helpful AI to augment human intelligence, offering personalized, conversational, and contextually aware experiences.

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

US: $207000 - $300000 (USD) + 20% bonus target + equity + benefits

Responsibilities

• Architect, guide, and vet systems designs within the scope of the AR Glasses OS team (with a focus on end-to-end performance optimizations), and write product or system development code to solve ambiguous problems.
• Analyze in-depth performance of workloads ranging from high-level application APIs to low-level microXR architecture details.
• Communicate, design, and implement decisions effectively through architecture/design documents and code.
• Mentor and train other team members on architecture and design techniques, coding standards, debugging complex system interactions, and engineering best practices and processes.
• Review code developed by other developers, provide feedback to ensure best practices, and contribute to the overall efficiency and productivity of the engineering team through code, process enhancements, and software development workflow improvements.

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 .