Senior Software Engineer, AI/ML, Core at Google
Kirkland, WA
$174,000–$253,000from the description
Jul 15, 2026
Kirkland, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A mid-to-senior engineering role on Google's AI and Infrastructure team, focused on designing, building, and testing software in one or more specialized machine learning domains — including speech/audio, reinforcement learning, or ML infrastructure such as model deployment, evaluation, and optimization. The work involves code and design reviews, debugging production issues, and contributing to documentation alongside cross-functional collaborators.
Senior level · 5+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 3 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 550 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 290–860
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $217,796 (middle half $177,469–$231,052). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The role has two primary work locations: Mountain View, CA (San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara CBSA) and Kirkland, WA (Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue CBSA). Mountain View is listed first and is Google's headquarters; the CBSA reflects that primary location.
The posting's internal level label reads 'Mid' in the UI framing, but the job title is 'Senior Software Engineer' and the compensation range ($174K–$253K + 15% bonus + equity) is consistent with a senior-level role. 'the level advertised in the title' reflects the explicit title; 'seniority' reflects the actual requirements (5 years, design/architecture ownership, mentoring).
The ML specialization requirement is an OR across several domains (speech/audio, reinforcement learning, ML infrastructure, or another ML field) — reinforcement learning is used as the primary name with speech/audio ML as an alternative to represent this gate. ML infrastructure appears separately as its own 3-year hard requirement.
Model deployment, model evaluation, and data processing are listed as concrete sub-requirements under the ML infrastructure experience gate and are retained as named skills; 'debugging' and 'optimization' were omitted as they are generic activities rather than named tools.
A Master's or PhD in CS is listed under Preferred qualifications, so the degree requirement is set to None (bachelor's or equivalent practical experience is the stated minimum, with equivalent experience accepted).
The alternative occupation of 15-2051 (Data Scientists) reflects the strong ML/AI focus; however, the primary day-to-day work described (writing and testing product/system code, design reviews, debugging) aligns more closely with Software Developers (15-1252).
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): software design and architecture, data structures and algorithms.
Read the full posting
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