
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning, Discover Interest Modeling and Retrieval
Mountain View, CAJob$174–252K/yrSeen todaySeen in employer's feed today
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Job overview
The Senior Software Engineer will develop machine learning models and retrieval systems for Google Discover’s personalized interest feed. The role focuses on modeling long-term interests and intent, selecting relevant content from a large, constantly refreshing corpus, and supporting personalization at scale. The engineer will build representation-learning models, run clustering and metric learning, and use large language models in machine learning systems.
Skills & qualifications
Skills
Qualifications
Full job description
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning, Discover Interest Modeling and Retrieval
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corporate_fare Google place Mountain View, CA, USA
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Experience driving progress, solving problems, and mentoring more junior team members; deeper expertise and applied knowledge within relevant area.
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XIn most instances, this position requires in-person interviews as part of the hiring process.
Minimum qualifications:
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Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
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5 years of experience building and launching production ML models, including 2 years of experience with recommendation, retrieval, search, or personalization systems.
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1 year of experience in the design, analysis, and optimization of algorithms for high-performance systems, and developing and implementing Machine Learning algorithms (e.g., classification, regression, clustering, deep learning) for practical applications.
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Experience with large-scale data processing (Beam, Spark, or similar), in Python, C++, and SQL, and with JAX, TensorFlow, or PyTorch.
Preferred qualifications:
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Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science or related technical field.
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5 years of experience with data structures and algorithms.
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1 year of experience in a technical leadership role.
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Experience developing accessible technologies.
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A proven track record driving quality projects end to end, from design through A/B experimentation to launch.
About the job
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.
Discover is Google's personalized interest feed. With hundreds of millions of daily active users, it is one of the largest feed recommendation products in the world.
In this role, the profile captures each person's long-term interests, favorite creators and in-the-moment intent. As these models drive hundreds of billions of recommendations a day, among the most important personalization signals in downstream ranking, and feed personalization across Google.
Every Discover feed starts with us, from a constantly refreshing corpus of millions of articles, videos, creator posts and AI-generated content, our retrieval and pre-ranking stack selects the few thousand candidates most relevant to each person, in milliseconds, at hundreds of millions of feeds a day.In Google Search, we're reimagining what it means to search for information – any way and anywhere. To do that, we need to solve complex engineering challenges and expand our infrastructure, while maintaining a universally accessible and useful experience that people around the world rely on. In joining the Search team, you'll have an opportunity to make an impact on billions of people globally.Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.
US: $174000 - $252000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits
Learn more aboutbenefits at Google (https://www.google.com/about/careers/applications/benefits/) .
Responsibilities
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Write and test product or system development code.
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Develop representation learning models, including embedding or encoder models trained with contrastive, supervised, or self-supervised (e.g., masked-prediction) objectives, and set or sequence encoders (attention pooling, Transformers).
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Execute clustering or metric learning at scale (e.g., hierarchical/agglomerative, density-based), and assess cluster quality.
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Utilize Large Language Model (LLMs) in ML systems (e.g., LLM embeddings, autoraters for evaluation) and distill LLM judgments into classifiers.
Information collected and processed as part of your Google Careers profile, and any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Google'sApplicant and Candidate Privacy Policy (./privacy-policy) .
Google is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to building a workforce that is representative of the users we serve, creating a culture of belonging, and providing an equal employment opportunity regardless of race, creed, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), expecting or parents-to-be, criminal histories consistent with legal requirements, or any other basis protected by law. See alsoGoogle's EEO Policy (https://www.google.com/about/careers/applications/eeo/) ,Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal (https://careers.google.com/jobs/dist/legal/EEOC\_KnowYourRights\_10\_20.pdf) ,Belonging at Google (https://about.google/belonging/) , andHow we hire (https://careers.google.com/how-we-hire/) .
If you have a need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing ourAccommodations for Applicants form (https://goo.gl/forms/aBt6Pu71i1kzpLHe2) .
Google is a global company and, in order to facilitate efficient collaboration and communication globally, English proficiency is a requirement for all roles unless stated otherwise in the job posting.
To all recruitment agencies: Google does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Google employees, or any other organization location. Google is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.
Equity is granted exclusively and discretionarily by Alphabet Inc. on the basis of an agreement concluded between you and Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. is your sole contractual partner with respect to equity grants. GSU grants are not guaranteed, are discretionary, are subject to approval by the Alphabet Inc. board of directors or its delegate, the terms of the relevant Alphabet Inc. stock plan, and your grant agreement. They have no impact on statutory payments. Current or past grants do not confer an acquired right.
Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also https://careers.google.com/eeo/ and https://careers.google.com/jobs/dist/legal/OFCCP_EEO_Post.pdf If you have a need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form: https://goo.gl/forms/aBt6Pu71i1kzpLHe2.
How this job compares
Set against the 40,832 open Software Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 5, 2026.
- Pay
- This posting$174–252K/yr
- California median$165–246K/yr7,688 salary ranges
- US median$135–218K/yr32,472 salary ranges
This range's midpoint, $213K, is 4% above the California median midpoint ($205K) — in the middle half of Software Engineer salary ranges in California.
- Openings
- Olive Jobs lists 9,560 open Software Engineer jobs in California and 40,832 across the US. 7% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
- Experience
- This posting asks for at least 5 years of experience; Software Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for 5 years at the median (33,318 postings).
- Education
- 14,022 of the 40,832 open Software Engineer jobs (34%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.
Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 5, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.
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