Senior Staff Software Engineer, Google Compute Engine (Guest Ecosystem)

Senior Staff Software Engineer, Google Compute Engine (Guest Ecosystem) Location: Sunnyvale, CA; Seattle, WA. Benefits include: Health, dental, vision, life, disability insurance Retirement Benefits: 401(k) with company match Paid Time Off: 20 days of vacation per year, accruing at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period for the first five years of employment Sick Time: 40 hours/year (increased to 69 hours/year for Seattle) including 5 discretionary sick days per instance Maternity Leave (Short-Term Disability + Baby Bonding): 28‑30 weeks Baby Bonding Leave: 18 weeks Holidays: 13 paid days per year Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field or equivalent practical experience. 8 years of experience with software development in one or more general purpose programming languages. Experience building and developing large‑scale infrastructure or distributed systems. Experience within a quota‑carrying team, such as people management, team lead, mentorship or coaching. Experience leading cross‑functional projects. Preferred qualifications Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field. Experience with high availability systems and production systems. Experience with Linux Internals, Kernel, and Virtualization. Ability to work in ambiguous, fast‑changing environments. The Guest Platform team enhances Google Cloud’s customer experience by simplifying agent deployment for SAP and AI/ML workloads via Virtual Machine (VM) Extensions. The Guest Ecosystem is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to unify its three core pillars—ContainerOS (COS), Guest OS, and Guest Platform—into a single product surface. In this role, you will serve as the primary technical authority, owning the multi-year roadmap, leading fleet‑wide migrations, and mentoring senior technical leads. Responsibilities Define the technical goal and roadmap for the Operating System image portfolio. Align with organizational goals to support first‑party/third‑party customer needs, focusing on versioning, hardening, optimization, and platform integration. Establish testing frameworks to deliver out‑of‑the‑box, qualified images across compute families. Monitor reliability via service level objective (SLOs), robust validation (security, compatibility), and incident management. Harden Operating System images, drive regular vulnerability scanning, and ensure timely patching to mitigate emerging threats. Partner with NPI teams to ensure Day‑0 GCE compatibility and continuous validation on next‑generation CPUs, TPUs, and GPUs. Collaborate with operating system vendors and open‑source communities. US: $262000 - $365000 (USD) + 25% bonus target + equity + benefits 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 also Google's EEO Policy, Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal, Belonging at Google, and How we hire. #J-18808-Ljbffr Google Inc.