Senior Staff Backend Software Engineer, Grid Applications

Tapestry•Mountain View, CA

1d•$262,000 - $369,000

About The Position

Tapestry, a group within Google, is building AI-powered tools to help the electricity ecosystem plan smarter, move faster, and operate more efficiently. It works with partners across the U.S., U.K., Chile, New Zealand, Australia, and Brazil to support a cleaner, more resilient energy future. The Senior Staff Backend Software Engineer will lead technical strategy, architecture, and development for enterprise applications supporting an evolving electric grid at planet scale. The role establishes engineering tools, architecture, and best practices, navigates ambiguous and complex technical challenges, and collaborates with software engineers, machine learning experts, power systems specialists, and product managers across teams. This is a high-impact individual-contributor technical leadership role, emphasizing scalable, reliable, secure systems, strong engineering craftsmanship, cross-functional leadership, and mentoring senior engineers. The US base salary range is $262,000–$369,000, plus bonus, equity, and benefits. Individual pay depends on work location and other job-related factors.

Requirements

10 or more years of software engineering experience, with a deep focus on distributed systems, backend infrastructure, and enterprise applications.
Significant track record of leading large-scale, complex technical projects from conception to launch as a high-impact individual contributor, tech lead, or architect.
Proven experience designing, building, and scaling reliable production systems and applications.
Thorough knowledge of large-scale data processing and modeling.
Expert-level proficiency in at least one major backend language, such as Java or Kotlin, and a strong grasp of foundational computer science concepts.
Hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform or AWS/Azure.
Deep understanding of reliability engineering, performance optimization, and establishing engineering tools and processes for large teams.
Ability to turn high-level ambiguity into concrete technical roadmaps and explain technical trade-offs to executives and cross-functional stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

PhD in Computer Science or a related quantitative field.
Prior experience in a zero-to-one environment or building a new geographic engineering site.
Experience building full-stack applications and familiarity with modern frontend frameworks such as Angular or React.
Experience building LLM-orchestrated distributed systems or autonomous agent frameworks.
Passion for using data and technology to create a future with reliable, affordable, and clean energy for everyone.

Responsibilities

Define and drive a forward-looking technical vision aligned with product roadmaps and customer priorities.
Identify technical gaps and balance speed-to-market with long-term system growth.
Guide architecture and design of enterprise applications, accounting for scale, complexity, availability, fault tolerance, security, and Google-scale reliability standards.
Collaborate with product managers, user experience designers, data scientists, power systems engineers, and engineering leaders to deliver solutions.
Translate ambiguous business needs into concrete technical roadmaps for teams and stakeholders.
Make hands-on technical contributions and build robust, elegant, maintainable systems.
Mentor senior engineers, collaborate with other technical leads, and raise the bar for technical excellence.
Establish engineering tools, architecture, and best practices that empower teams.