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Senior Staff Software Engineer, Unified Traffic Engineering, Infrastructure

Google

Sunnyvale, CAJob$262–364K/yrSeen todaySeen in employer's feed today

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At a glance

Compensation
$262–364K/yr
Location
Sunnyvale, CA
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Job overview

Google’s Unified Traffic Engineering team builds systems for optimized routing and traffic load balancing across its global networks. The Senior Staff Software Engineer will set technical strategy and architecture, develop highly available solver algorithms and network programming infrastructure, and collaborate with partner teams to ship global releases. The role also provides domain expertise and mentorship while advancing system safety and engineering quality.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

C++ ProgrammingDesign and ArchitectureSoftware Testing and LaunchingGenerative AI IntegrationLLM Workflow IntegrationData Structures and AlgorithmsTechnical LeadershipPerformance OptimizationDistributed Systems DebuggingLarge-Scale Real-Time SystemsSoftware-Defined NetworkingNetwork Architecture Design

Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree or Equivalent Practical Experience8 Years C++ Experience5 Years Design and Software Launch ExperienceMaster's or PhD in Engineering, Computer Science, or Related Field8 Years Data Structures and Algorithms Experience5 Years Technical Leadership Experience3 Years Complex Matrixed Organization ExperienceEnglish Proficiency

Full job description

Senior Staff Software Engineer, Unified Traffic Engineering, Infrastructure

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Experience owning outcomes and decision making, solving ambiguous problems and influencing stakeholders; deep expertise in domain.

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XIn most instances, this position requires in-person interviews as part of the hiring process.

Minimum qualifications:

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

  • 8 years of experience programming in C++.

  • 5 years of experience with design and architecture; and testing/launching software products.

  • Experience integrating generative AI tools or LLM interfaces into workflows.

Preferred qualifications:

  • Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.

  • 8 years of experience with data structures and algorithms.

  • 5 years of experience in a technical leadership role leading project teams and setting technical direction.

  • 3 years of experience working in a complex, matrixed organization involving cross-functional, or cross-business projects.

  • Experience with Performance optimization of software systems, debugging complex, distributed software systems, designing and implementing large-scale, real-time software systems. Software-defined networking and Network architecture design.

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.

Unified Traffic Engineering (UTE) is responsible for optimized routing and traffic load balancing across Google's global networks, including B4 and the Google Global Network (GGN). Network traffic engineering is a critical infrastructure service; our systems deliver every network flow for Google and GCP end-to-end.

Our core goals include: guaranteeing four nines of network availability through fault-tolerant, outage-free system designs, delivering deterministic, policy-compliant, and latency-bounded packet forwarding. Reducing per-byte costs via novel traffic engineering algorithms and tight integration with capacity planning.

The AI and Infrastructure team is redefining what’s possible. We empower Google customers with breakthrough capabilities and insights by delivering AI and Infrastructure at unparalleled scale, efficiency, reliability and velocity. Our customers include Googlers, Google Cloud customers, and billions of Google users worldwide.

We're the driving force behind Google's groundbreaking innovations, empowering the development of our cutting-edge AI models, delivering unparalleled computing power to global services, and providing the essential platforms that enable developers to build the future. From software to hardware our teams are shaping the future of world-leading hyperscale computing, with key teams working on the development of our TPUs, Vertex AI for Google Cloud, Google Global Networking, Data Center operations, systems research, and much more.

Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $262000 - $364000 (USD) + 25% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more aboutbenefits at Google (https://www.google.com/about/careers/applications/benefits/) .

Responsibilities

  • Set the technical strategy and define the long-term software architecture for Google's next-generation Unified Traffic Engineering systems.

  • Design, implement, and scale complex, highly available solver algorithms and high-concurrency network programming infrastructure.

  • Drive strategic alignment and collaborate deeply with partner network teams, hardware teams, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) to safely ship global product releases.

  • Act as a domain expert and mentor for a team of talented software engineers, raising the bar for engineering excellence, system safety, and code health across the organization.

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$262–364K/yr
  • California median$165–246K/yr7,688 salary ranges
  • US median$135–218K/yr32,472 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $313K, is 53% above the California median midpoint ($205K) — in the top quarter 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.
Hiring the most in California
Experience
This posting asks for at least 8 years of experience — more than three in four Software Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for (median 5 years, across 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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