Staff Software Engineer, Infrastructure

Google•Cambridge, MA

10h•$207,000 - $300,000

About The Position

Google is hiring a Staff Software Engineer to lead infrastructure and product initiatives across its Sellside Display and Video Ads platforms, including Google Ad Manager and AdSense. The team works across billions of daily browser environments and Google’s low-latency C++ ad-serving stack, shaping the lifecycle of ad requests from the browser and network edge through high-QPS backend systems. The work includes first-party serving and publisher integrations, next-generation ad delivery to the browser, and shared client and serving platform foundations. The role involves leading complex, multi-quarter initiatives across browser runtimes and backend ad servers, balancing business generation, latency, and privacy. It also includes influencing architectural roadmaps and system boundaries across engineering groups, developing experimentation and telemetry systems, and providing technical leadership and coaching to Cambridge-based engineers. Google Ads applies machine learning and Generative AI models, including Gemini, to its global advertising business. The work aims to protect users, improve ad quality, and optimize advertiser return on investment, in collaboration with teams such as Google Research and DeepMind. Individual pay is determined by job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. The listed US salary range is $207,000–$300,000, plus a 20% bonus target, equity, and benefits.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
8 years of software development experience in C++ or TypeScript/JavaScript.
3 years of full-stack development experience across back-end codebases such as Java, Python, Golang, or C++, and front-end technologies including JavaScript or TypeScript, HTML, and CSS, or equivalent.
3 years of experience in a technical leadership role overseeing projects.

Nice To Haves

Experience spanning high-throughput backend serving architectures in C++ (low-latency RPC services and caching) and modern web platform internals in TypeScript/JavaScript (browser security/privacy models, cross-origin iframes, HTTP/edge routing, or emerging browser standards such as shared compression dictionaries).
Experience with online controlled experimentation (A/B testing at scale), causal inference, and high-volume telemetry/data analysis.
Experience in digital advertising, ad-serving infrastructure, or web platform engineering.
Proven track record designing, evolving, and operating large-scale, low-latency distributed backend systems.
Ability to influence technical direction across organizational boundaries and partner effectively.

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end system design for complex, multi-quarter initiatives across browser runtimes and backend ad servers, balancing business generation, latency, and privacy.
Act as a technical authority and team multiplier across engineering groups, influencing multi-year architectural roadmaps, system boundaries, and API contracts across client tagging, ad serving, and privacy infrastructure.
Reduce complexity in critical codebases by designing clean abstractions, safe guardrails, and AI workflows that accelerate team velocity and reliability.
Design rigorous A/B experiments and high-volume telemetry pipelines to validate performance, latency, and monetization across billions of daily impressions.
Provide technical leadership to Cambridge-based engineers by breaking down complex problems, elevating design and code reviews, and coaching them into senior roles.