Senior Staff Software Engineer, Google Cloud AI at Google
Seattle, WA
$262,000–$365,000from the description
Jul 2, 2026
Seattle, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior individual-contributor engineering role focused on designing, building, and maintaining large-scale software within Google Cloud AI. The position carries significant technical leadership responsibility — setting direction, aligning distributed engineering teams, and managing priorities across complex cross-functional projects. It suits an experienced engineer with a strong background in system design and a track record of guiding teams through ambiguous, high-impact work.
Staff level · 8+ years · Sunnyvale, CA (San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA) · Full-time
Advertised as Senior, but the requirements read as Staff.
Posted 2 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 10,500 people in the Sunnyvale, CA (San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA) area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 7,900–13,600
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
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 title is 'Senior Staff Software Engineer' — the posting explicitly uses the 'Staff' level designation, which combined with the scope (influencing distributed teams, cross-org alignment, high-impact projects at Google Cloud scale) supports a Staff-level classification despite the advertised title leading with 'Senior'.
The role has meaningful people-influence and coaching responsibilities ('influence and coach a distributed team of engineers', 'facilitate alignment across teams'), making 11-3021 a plausible runner-up, but the primary day-to-day work is described as hands-on design, development, testing, and deployment of large-scale software — so 15-1252 is the better fit.
The degree requirement accepts 'equivalent practical experience' in lieu of a Bachelor's degree, so the degree requirement is set to None.
The posted compensation of $262,000–$365,000/year is base salary only; the posting separately notes a 25% bonus target plus equity.
The role lists two possible locations (Sunnyvale, CA and Seattle, WA); Sunnyvale is listed first. The CBSA reflects the Sunnyvale/San Jose metro.
Skills listed under 'Minimum qualifications' (software development, design/architecture) are marked required. Skills under 'Preferred qualifications' (data structures/algorithms, technical leadership, matrixed org experience) are marked preferred. The JD names no specific technologies or tools — only broad engineering disciplines — so no concrete technology skills could be extracted.
Ignored 3 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): software development, software architecture, technical leadership.
Read the full posting
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