Principal Engineer, Hybrid Cloud Environment

Google•Zurich, CA

2h•$307,000 - $427,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As the Principal Engineer and Unified Tech Lead (UTL) for the Hybrid Cloud Environment (HCE) team, you will act as the primary technical authority for our organization, owning the technical direction and multi-year roadmap for the Hybrid Cloud Environment platform, establishing an automated and secure cloud infrastructure plane across Google. The Hybrid Cloud Environment represents a paradigm shift in how enterprise software systems and developers interact with cloud infrastructure, drawing strong parallels to major multi-cloud and SaaS architectural modernizations across the industry. The platform compiles natural-language developer intent and declarative governance directly into secure, compliant, and highly scalable cloud environments. By delivering a single-call instantiation pattern the platform abstracts away the massive operational friction of cloud resource provisioning (e.g., IAM, VPC Service Controls, BeyondCorp, and Cloud DLP). Your mission is to make safe, governed cloud environment creation the path of least resistance across the company—allowing both human engineers and autonomous AI agents to stand up real, enterprise-grade cloud environments in seconds. You will guide an engineering organization, bridging the gap between traditional developer ecosystems (Google3, etc.) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). 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.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
15 years of experience in software engineering, with a focus on designing, building, and operating large-scale, distributed cloud infrastructure, policy engines, or control planes.
Experience in a technical leadership role leading senior engineering teams and defining multi-year architectural strategies.

Nice To Haves

Experience with AI application platforms, prompt engineering systems, or orchestrating agentic workflows.
Deep familiarity with developer infrastructure and Cloud Platform solutions.
Exceptional executive communication and influence skills, with a proven ability to lead across organizational boundaries and align executive-level priorities.
Track record of designing compilers, policy engines, or domain-specific languages that compile high-level configurations or intents into secure cloud configurations.

Responsibilities

Define the compiler translating natural-language intent and decorators (including residency and budget) into secure cloud environments, establishing a reference implementation with a federated registry.
Host autonomous AI agents operating under strictly bounded, non-amplifiable credentials.
Lead the design of the control plane ensuring zero-trust identity using short-lived credentials integrated with Google's identity plane and Sigstore attestations.
Employ automated drift pipelines, reaper protocols, and CVE controllers to eliminate manual compliance tickets.
Mentor staff and senior staff engineers to cultivate the next generation of technical leaders, fostering an AI-fluent culture of rapid, safe iteration.
Represent the organization across Core and Product Areas to arbitrate complex disputes.
Collaborate across boundaries to establish a safe adoption ratchet, driving organic GCP adoption.