Principal Engineer, Data Indexing Infrastructure

Google's Core Data team is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead their Data Indexing Infrastructure (DII), a critical component of their Information Retrieval tech stack supporting both traditional search and AI applications. This role sits within Core's mission to make Google better for everyone at scale, working on foundational technology that powers Google's product family.

As a Principal Engineer, you'll provide essential technical oversight for DII and be recognized as a leading expert in indexing and large distributed systems. You'll guide technical decision-making for multiple global/regional teams and shape long-term direction and strategy across Product Areas. The position requires deep technical expertise in distributed systems, information retrieval, and resource optimization.

The role offers an opportunity to work at the intersection of traditional search infrastructure and modern AI applications, mentoring technical leads while ensuring system health and reliability. You'll collaborate across the entire Core Data team to define coherent end-to-end product offerings and work closely with product management to align infrastructure with current and future customer needs.

This is a senior technical leadership position requiring 15+ years of software engineering experience, with a preference for 20+ years. The role offers competitive compensation ($294,000-$414,000 + bonus + equity + benefits) and the chance to work at Google's major tech hubs in Sunnyvale, San Francisco, or Bengaluru. You'll be part of Google's Core team, which has a unique mandate to impact important technical decisions across the company and break down technical barriers while strengthening existing systems.