Principal Technical Program Manager, Core

Google•San Jose, CA

15h•$281,000 - $391,000

About The Position

As Principal Technical Program Manager, you will drive our complex, technical initiatives, including the transformation of Core and Google’s infrastructure for AI and Cloud, as well as the AI transformation of Google. As a senior individual contributor (IC) in this role, you will demonstrate the best of the technical program management discipline and navigate high levels of ambiguity and Google-scale organizational and technical complexity to transform strategic narratives to active engineering programs and strong product landings. In this role, you will be a trusted execution partner to the most senior business leaders in Core, and operate with high trust and influence across senior engineering, product, and other cross-functional leaders in Core to shape technical directional, lead engineering delivery, and uplevel engineering operational excellence across our organization. You will role model the best of the technical program management craft and leverage AI to transform program leadership and their own personal workflows. 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, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
15 years of experience in technical program management or engineering management, and 5 years of experience as a practicing software engineer.
10 years of experience operating as a senior individual contributor (IC), architect, or tech lead driving cross-functional initiatives without direct authority.
Experience establishing operational metrics, system availability standards, SLOs, and performance tracking frameworks for software products.

Nice To Haves

Experience as a software or ML engineer, providing the "technical gravity" needed to earn the respect of senior technical leaders.
Experience building and driving adoption of internal developer platforms or horizontal services.
Experience in system architecture, software development, and infrastructure design. Knowledge of large-scale distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, AI/ML pipelines with ability to translate complex requirements into scalable solutions.
Ability to lead large-scale organizational shifts in methodology or technical architecture.
Ability to grow and navigate in highly ambiguous, fast-paced environments, driving clarity and execution from the ground up.
Outstanding written and verbal communications, with excellent executive presence.

Responsibilities

Lead the strategy, planning, and end-to-end delivery of cross-Core and even cross-product area.
Take ownership of ambiguous "0 to 1" initiatives where no precedent exists. Define the problem space, secure cross-functional alignment, manage critical dependencies, and build comprehensive roadmaps from scratch.
Identify and dismantle organizational silos and systemic friction points. Architect and deploy scalable workflows, prioritization frameworks, operational excellence practices, and continuous improvement processes to increase velocity company-wide.
Drive strategy, planning, and comprehensive deployment of cross-Core and cross-product area initiatives. Direct high-level programs without established pathways, clarifying problem scopes, unifying multi-team alignment, mitigating critical friction points, and engineering comprehensive deployment plans from the ground up.
Collaborate with executive engineering and product leadership to establish architectural direction. Design and execute scalable operational frameworks. Formulate transparent, analytical performance overviews, risk mitigations, and decision evaluations regarding program development.