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Senior Staff AI/ML Engineer, Cloud AI Research

Google

Mountain View, CAJob$262–364K/yrSeen 1w agoSeen in employer's feed 1w ago

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At a glance

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

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

Job overview

The Senior Staff AI/ML Engineer will guide executive leadership, identify enterprise bottlenecks across Google Cloud, and architect agent state-machine blueprints. The role combines foundational research, optimized ML infrastructure, and rapid prototyping to develop generalizable agents and enterprise deployments. It also directs research into agent architectures, planning frameworks, and self-improving foundation models while advancing AI science and publishing breakthroughs.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Software DevelopmentPythonC++JavaJavaScriptML System DesignML Infrastructure OptimizationAutonomous Agent DevelopmentMulti-Agent WorkflowsAgentic FrameworksLarge Language ModelsMultimodal Foundation ModelsScientific PublishingTechnical LeadershipRapid PrototypingReinforcement LearningReward ModelingPreference AlignmentTest-Time ScalingSearch-Guided DecodingAdversarial RobustnessAlignment Guardrails

Qualifications

Bachelor's in CS or Related8+ Years Software Development8+ Years ML SystemsPhD in CS or RelatedFirst-Author Publication Track RecordSenior Staff or Principal Technical Lead ExperienceEnglish Proficiency

Full job description

Senior Staff AI/ML Engineer, Cloud AI Research

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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 in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or equivalent practical experience.

  • 8 years of experience in software development, including experience with Python, C++, Java, or JavaScript.

  • 8 years of experience leading large-scale ML system design and optimizing ML infrastructure (e.g., distributed training, model deployment, evaluation).

  • Experience developing autonomous agents, multi-agent workflows, or agentic frameworks (e.g., AutoGen, CrewAI, LangGraph, ADK, tool-use/function-calling, or multi-agent).

  • Experience designing, pre-training, fine-tuning, or evaluating Large Language Models (LLMs) and multimodal foundation models.

Preferred qualifications:

  • PhD degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical discipline.

  • Extensive track record of first-author scientific publication submissions on agents in machine learning and NLP at venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL).

  • Demonstrated success operating as a Senior Staff/Principal technical lead orchestrating rapid SWAT, Pathfinding, or Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) environments at an enterprise level.

  • Industry-leading expertise in RL, reward modeling, and human/AI preference alignment techniques.

  • Deep mastery in developing test-time scaling methods, search-guided decoding, adversarial robustness, and complex alignment guardrails.

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.

The frontier of AI is moving faster than the traditional enterprise deployment lifecycle can tolerate. Our organization exists to eliminate that "GenAI Engineering Gap." Operating as an AI-Native pathfinding engine at the intersection of foundational research, optimized ML infrastructure and rapid prototyping, we don't simply publish papers; we build the future of AI agents and deploy them at breakneck speed.

In this role, you will guide executive leadership, deconstruct the enterprise bottlenecks across Google Cloud, and architect the overarching blueprints for our agent state machines. You will direct the technical agenda for generalizable horizontal agents and vertical Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) deployments, ensuring that our pathfinding velocity unlocks massive commercial and platform value while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of AI science.

Google Cloud accelerates every organization’s ability to digitally transform its business and industry. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google’s cutting-edge technology, and tools that help developers build more sustainably. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.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

  • Architect the technical framework for high-velocity "Strike Sprints," defining the gold standard for intent-driven AI topologies, reflection loops, and advanced agent state machines across the entire organization.

  • Serve as the principal technical anchor for massive Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) missions, aligning directly with VP/Director-level partners to translate speculative agentic prototypes into enterprise solutions.

  • Set the architectural goals and lead the development of generalizable horizontal agents (e.g., AutoResearch and AutoFounder) that fundamentally alter engineering velocity across Google.

  • Direct the research agenda to develop agent architectures, novel planning frameworks, and self-improving foundation models.

  • Act as a thought leader across Google, defining centrally governed agentic playbooks, and actively publishing definitive breakthroughs at ML conferences.

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 584 open AI/ML Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted October 30, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$262–364K/yr
  • California median$171–261K/yr49 salary ranges
  • US median$126–215K/yr459 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $313K, is 47% above the California median midpoint ($213K) — in the top quarter of AI/ML Engineer salary ranges in California.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 73 open AI/ML Engineer jobs in California and 584 across the US. 5% 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 AI/ML Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for (median 5 years, across 492 postings).
Education
317 of the 584 open AI/ML Engineer jobs (54%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on October 30, 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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