Staff Software Engineer, Detection and Response Platform

Google; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 207,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Google is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to drive the design and development of large-scale distributed systems and AI-enabled agents. You will lead architecture efforts, own critical data ingestion pipelines, and guide cross-functional teams across the Detection and Response Platform organization.

The role requires extensive experience in C++/Go, distributed systems, and AI/LLM implementations, with opportunities to influence multiple core products at Google.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience programming in C++ or Go.
• 5 years of experience with design and architecture; and testing/launching software products.
• Experience architecting, designing, and developing large-scale distributed systems.
• Experience designing or deploying distributed data processing systems (e.g., Spanner, BigQuery, Cassandra, PostgreSQL).
• Experience designing, developing, and deploying generative AI agents or large language model (LLM) applications

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for one of the largest data ingestion and processing platforms at Alphabet.
• Drive latency reduction, improve service level objectives (SLOs), reduce manual intervention through automation, and integrate agents where needed.
• Provide oversight and guidance to executive engineers.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to serve the Detection and Response Platform organization.

Skills

C++/Go programming

Distributed systems design

Leadership

AI/LLM applications

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering/CS

Tools

Spanner

BigQuery

Cassandra

PostgreSQL

AI agents

Job description

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience programming in C++ or Go.
• 5 years of experience with design and architecture; and testing/launching software products.
• Experience architecting, designing, and developing large-scale distributed systems.
• Experience designing or deploying distributed data processing systems (e.g., Spanner, BigQuery, Cassandra, PostgreSQL).
• Experience designing, developing, and deploying generative AI agents or large language model (LLM) applications

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 building data infrastructure.
• Experience building AI agents.

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.

The Detection and Response Platform Organization, builds systems and products to enable Security Engineers to prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to security threats in Google’s environments. Our adversaries are tireless, so we need creative software engineers who are passionate about security to join us to build our detection and response capabilities for Google, Alphabet, and the world.

Our tools are Google's last line of defense against intruders, many of whom are sophisticated and try to evade detection. We must keep ahead by building flexible systems for the long-term and by thinking of gaps in our threat model before our adversaries think of them.

Our goal is to make security controls unobtrusive and broadly available.

The Core team builds the technical foundation behind Google’s flagship products. We are owners and advocates for the underlying design elements, developer platforms, product components, and infrastructure at Google. These are the essential building blocks for excellent, safe, and coherent experiences for our users and drive the pace of innovation for every developer. We look across Google’s products to build central solutions, break down technical barriers and strengthen existing systems. As the Core team, we have a mandate and a unique opportunity to impact important technical decisions across the company.

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

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for one of the largest data ingestion and processing platforms at Alphabet.
• Drive latency reduction, improve service level objectives (SLOs), reduce manual intervention through automation, and integrate agents where needed.
• Provide oversight and guidance to executive engineers.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to serve the Detection and Response Platform organization.

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