Minimum qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
- 8 years of experience with software development in one or more programming languages (e.g., Go, Python, Rust, or C++).
- 5 years of experience with software design and architecture across distributed systems, developer platforms/tooling, container/virtualization runtimes, or AI/cloud infrastructure.
- 3 years of experience with software design and architecture.
- Experience building/architecting Agentic AI platforms and infrastructure.
Preferred qualifications:
- Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
- 8 years of experience with data structures/algorithms.
- Deep architectural expertise in two or more of: agentic harnesses and runtimes, container/microVM and OS isolation, developer tooling/DX, or Kubernetes/cloud-native control planes in Go.
- Recognized open-source leadership (maintainer, creator, or specification author in CNCF, AI/agent foundations, or adopted developer tools) and comfort operating in fast-moving spaces between applied research and production engineering.
- Track record of taking 0-to-1 developer platforms, open-source runtimes, CLIs/SDKs, or AI agent infrastructure from early concept to widespread adoption.
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.
We build the open-source, developer-first orchestration and runtime foundations that power modern AI and autonomous agent workloads. Our team combines deep distributed-systems and upstream open-source leadership with fast-paced, applied exploration: we build in the open, partner closely with frontier AI labs, external framework and harness maintainers, and open standards foundations, and iterate rapidly with the developer community to shape industry-wide standards for AI and agentic computing.
In this role, you'll define and drive the technical architecture of Google Cloud's open-source agent platform and developer substrate. As a Staff Software Engineer on our team, you will set multi-quarter technical direction across developer experience, stateful agent execution, secure isolation, and ecosystem-wide interoperability. The AI and Infrastructure team is redefining what’s possible. We empower Google customers with breakthrough capabilities and insights by delivering AI and Infrastructure at unparalleled scale, efficiency, reliability and velocity. Our customers include Googlers, Google Cloud customers, and billions of Google users worldwide. We're the driving force behind Google's groundbreaking innovations, empowering the development of our cutting-edge AI models, delivering unparalleled computing power to global services, and providing the essential platforms that enable developers to build the future. From software to hardware our teams are shaping the future of world-leading hyperscale computing, with key teams working on the development of our TPUs, Vertex AI for Google Cloud, Google Global Networking, Data Center operations, systems research, and much more. 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.
- Drive the multi-quarter technical architecture and roadmap for our open-source agent platform, runtime, and developer experience.
- Define clean, extensible platform abstractions, APIs, and lifecycle protocols that support stateful, secure, and portable AI agent execution from laptop to cloud.
- Lead technical alignment across Google Cloud, AI/ML teams, security, and external framework and lab partners to deliver cohesive end-to-end agent workflows.
- Solve complex challenges balancing zero-friction developer ergonomics with enterprise governance, isolation, and hyperscale performance.
- Provide technical leadership in the open-source community and standards bodies, cultivating external adoption and mentoring engineers across the team.