Software Engineer, AI/ML, PhD, Early Career, 2026

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.

As a key member of a small and versatile team, you design, test, deploy and maintain software solutions.

Within Google Cloud, the AI and Infrastructure(AI2) organization is at the forefront of creating groundbreaking AI/ML capabilities. We are responsible for designing and managing the software, hardware, and Machine Learning (ML) systems infrastructure that power essential Google services such as Search and YouTube, as well as Google Cloud products.

As a PhD Software Engineer within AI2, your specialized research expertise will be instrumental in solving complex, real-world problems on an unprecedented scale. You'll engage in innovative projects spanning areas like AI/ML, networking, data storage, security, and distributed systems.

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.

Responsibilities

• Write product or system development code.
• Collaborate with peers and stakeholders through design and code reviews to ensure best practices amongst available technologies (e.g., style guidelines, checking code in, accuracy, testability, and efficiency).
• Contribute to existing documentation or educational content and adapt content based on product/program updates and user feedback.
• Triage product or system issues and debug/track/resolve by analyzing the sources of issues and the impact on hardware, network, or service operations and quality.
• Implement solutions in one or more specialized ML areas, utilize ML infrastructure, and contribute to model optimization and data processing.

Qualifications

Minimum qualifications:

• PhD degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 1 year of experience with one or more of the following: Speech/audio (e.g., technology duplicating and responding to the human voice), reinforcement learning (e.g., sequential decision making), ML infrastructure, or specialization in another ML field.
• 1 year of experience with ML infrastructure (e.g., model deployment, model evaluation, optimization, data processing, debugging).
• Experience coding in one of the following programming languages including but not limited to: C, C++, Python, Java, or Golang.

Preferred qualifications:

• 2 years of experience with data structures and algorithms.
• Experience in areas such as algorithms, architecture, artificial intelligence, compilers, databases, data mining, distributed systems, machine learning, networking, or general systems.
• Demonstrated success in publishing peer-reviewed articles in prestigious conferences or journals (e.g., ICML, ICLR, ACL, KDD, SOSP, Nature).
• Availability to commence a full-time position in 2026.