Staff Software Engineer, AI/ML, Google Public Sector

Google; United States; On-site; USD 207,000 - 301,000; Full time

Job summary

Google Public Sector is seeking a Staff Software Engineer, AI/ML, to lead advanced AI/ML initiatives in Reston, VA. You will architect large-scale distributed data systems, optimize ML inference on specialized accelerators, and guide cross-functional teams across the product lifecycle.

This role requires deep expertise in software engineering, 8 years of experience, and strong leadership. Familiarity with Docker/Kubernetes and cloud storage is essential; security-clearance eligibility is a plus.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience programming in C++, Java, Python, Kotlin, or Go.
• Experience in technical leadership, roadmaps, and delivering projects.
• Experience in parallel computing, hardware-level optimization, and accelerator optimization.
• Master's or PhD in CS/Physics/Math preferred.
• 8 years building large-scale distributed data systems and ML deployments.
• Experience deploying DL architectures with PyTorch or TensorFlow on large clusters.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and distributed storage.

Responsibilities

• Architect and operate data synthesis pipelines and AI-based retrieval apps.
• Manage petabyte-scale data ingestion across compute environments.
• Optimize ML inference for accelerators.
• Lead technical direction and mentor engineering teams.
• Implement data lifecycle policies for resilience and integrity.

Skills

C++/Java/Python

Kotlin/Go

Technical leadership

Parallel computing

Low-level optimization

HPC

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Distributed filesystems

Job description

Staff Software Engineer, AI/ML, Google Public Sector

Location: Reston, VA, USA

Experience Level: Advanced

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.

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.

Salary

• US: $207,000 - $301,000 (USD) + 20% bonus target + equity + benefits
• Learn more about benefits at Google.

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.

Additional Information

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