Staff Software Engineer, AI/ML, Google Public Sector

Google; Reston (VA); On-site; USD 207,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Google’s Senior AI/ML Software Engineer role in Reston, VA seeks an engineer to design and deploy large-scale distributed data systems and advanced ML pipelines. You will bridge HPC and modern AI applications, optimizing inference workloads for specialized accelerators while guiding cross-functional teams.

The position emphasizes leadership in defining technical roadmaps, delivering complex projects, and maintaining code quality. In-person interviews are common as part of the hiring process.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience programming in C++, Java, Python, Kotlin or Go.
• Experience in technical leadership, including defining technical road maps, delivering projects, and maintaining code quality standards.
• Experience in parallel computing paradigms, hardware-level optimization, and low-level accelerator optimization.
• Master's degree or PhD in a quantitative discipline (e.g., Computer Science, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or similar).
• 8 years of experience designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed data systems and production machine learning deployments.
• Experience deploying modern deep learning architectures using frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow on large-scale clusters.
• Experience with cloud-native infrastructure (Docker, Kubernetes) and managing distributed filesystems and cloud object storage.
• Active, or the ability to obtain, a Secret security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Architect and operate advanced data synthesis pipelines and AI-based retrieval applications.
• Manage petabyte-scale data ingestion and synchronization across compute environments, including local storage, cloud backends, and on-prem resources.
• Optimize highly parallel numerical operations and ML inference algorithms for specialized hardware accelerators.
• Lead technical direction and provide engineering mentorship for groups developing complex production software systems.
• Implement rigorous data life-cycle policies to ensure system resilience, data integrity, and fault recovery at scale.

Skills

C++/Java

Python

Kotlin/Go

Technical leadership

Distributed data systems

ML pipelines

HPC

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Master's or PhD preferred

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Distributed file systems

Job description

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

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience programming in C++, Java, Python, Kotlin or Go.
• Experience in technical leadership, including defining technical road maps, delivering projects, and maintaining code quality standards.
• Experience in parallel computing paradigms, hardware-level optimization, and low-level accelerator optimization.

Preferred qualifications

• Master's degree or PhD in a quantitative discipline (e.g., Computer Science, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or similar).
• 8 years of experience designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed data systems and production machine learning deployments.
• Experience deploying modern deep learning architectures using frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow on large-scale clusters.
• Experience with cloud-native infrastructure (Docker, Kubernetes) and managing distributed filesystems and cloud object storage.
• Active, or the ability to obtain, a Secret security clearance.

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.

As a part of the technical Senior AI/ML Software Engineer, you will lead the architecture and deployment of large-scale distributed data systems and advanced machine learning pipelines. In this role, you will design infrastructure capable of analyzing high-throughput data streams. You will bridge the gap between High-Performance Computing (HPC) and modern AI applications, optimizing complex inference workloads for specialized hardware accelerators while guiding cross-functional engineering teams.

Google Public Sector brings the magic of Google to the mission of government and education with solutions purpose-built for enterprises. We focus on helping United States public sector institutions accelerate their digital transformations, and we continue to make significant investments and grow our team to meet the complex needs of local, state and federal government and educational institutions.

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

Learn more about benefits at Google .

• Architect and operate advanced data synthesis pipelines and AI-based retrieval applications.
• Manage petabyte-scale data ingestion and synchronization across compute environments, including local storage, cloud backends, and on-prem resources.
• Optimize highly parallel numerical operations and ML inference algorithms for specialized hardware accelerators.
• Lead technical direction and provide engineering mentorship for groups developing complex production software systems.
• Implement rigorous data life-cycle policies to ensure system resilience, data integrity, and fault recovery at scale.

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 .