Senior Staff Software Engineer

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.

As a Senior Staff Software Engineer on Google Compute Engine’s team, you will lead the technical strategy and execution to modernize Google Cloud’s foundational virtualization stack into memory-safe Rust. You will pioneer the use of agentic AI coding workflows, automated migration pipelines, and C++/Rust interoperability tooling to transform mission-critical, low-level C++ systems code into high-performance, standalone Rust. Beyond core virtualization, you will serve as a key technical catalyst driving Rust architecture, tooling standards, and engineering adoption across Google Compute Engine.
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: $262000 - $364000 (USD) + 25% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google (https://www.google.com/about/careers/applications/benefits/).

Minimum qualifications:

- Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

- 8 years of experience in systems software engineering, software architecture, and low-level programming in C++ and Rust.

- 5 years of experience with design and architecture; and testing/launching software products.

- Experience architecting and shipping large-scale systems software (e.g., virtualization, hypervisors/VMMs, OS kernels, or cloud infrastructure).

- Experience leading cross-organizational technical strategy and mentoring senior engineers.

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.

- Experience leading large-scale C++-to-Rust migrations, C++/Rust interoperability (FFI), and establishing idiomatic Rust standards across an organization.

- Experience applying AI/agentic coding workflows, LLM-assisted code translation, or automated refactoring tools to production systems.

- Experience with Linux/KVM, Virtual Machine Monitors, hardware virtualization, and security sandboxing.

- Expertise in functional verification for critical infrastructure, including differential fuzzing, property-based testing, or equivalence checking.

- Provide technical leadership on high-impact projects.

- Influence and coach a distributed team of engineers.

- Facilitate alignment and clarity across teams on goals, outcomes, and timelines.

- Execute large-scale transformation of critical virtualization and host systems code (including Virtual Machine Monitor and node infrastructure components) into idiomatic, memory-safe Rust.

- Pioneer agentic coding techniques, AI-assisted migration workflows, and modern C++/Rust interoperability tooling to dramatically accelerate code conversion velocity while improving modularity and maintainability.