Software Engineer Manager II, Audio Video Systems, YouTube

Like Google's own ambitions, the work of a Software Engineer goes beyond just Search. Software Engineering Managers have not only the technical expertise to take on and provide technical leadership to major projects, but also manage a team of Engineers. You not only optimize your own code but make sure Engineers are able to optimize theirs. As a Software Engineering Manager you manage your project goals, contribute to product strategy and help develop your team. Teams work all across the company, in areas such as information retrieval, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, distributed computing, large-scale system design, networking, security, data compression, user interface design; the list goes on and is growing every day. Operating with scale and speed, our exceptional software engineers are just getting started -- and as a manager, you guide the way.

With technical and leadership expertise, you manage engineers across multiple teams and locations, a large product budget and oversee the deployment of large-scale projects across multiple sites internationally.

In this role, you will enable smooth operation of video infrastructure projects, and generate ideas and algorithms to ensure Google provides excellent video experience for the users. You will also manage project goals, contribute to product strategy and help develop the team. You will be part of the media algorithms organization, which is a mix of audio/video processing and transcoding domain experts and software engineers, focused on researching and improving YouTube’s video infrastructure. You will work on building guardrails for audio and video quality, on optimizing tradeoffs between quality and scaling costs, and on innovating backend transcoding/processing infrastructure.

At YouTube, we believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share, and build community through our stories. We work together to give everyone the power to share their story, explore what they love, and connect with one another in the process. Working at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and boundless creativity, we move at the speed of culture with a shared goal to show people the world. We explore new ideas, solve real problems, and have fun — and we do it all together.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $197,000-$291,000 + bonus + equity + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Set and communicate team priorities that support the broader organization's goals. Align strategy, processes, and decision-making across teams.
  
• Set clear expectations with individuals based on their level and role, and align them to the broader organization's goals. Meet regularly with individuals to discuss performance and development and provide feedback and coaching.
  
• Develop the mid-term technical goal and roadmap within the scope of your (often multiple) team(s). Evolve the roadmap to meet anticipated future requirements and infrastructure needs.
• Focus on execution, ensure that the right pipelines are built and long term delivery of products is smooth and error-free. Design and drive advanced R&D to the product pipelines in a streamlined manner to solve ambiguous problems.
• Work with product managers to define product road maps and align on long-term cross-functional initiatives and priorities.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience in managing software engineering teams, especially in audio and video products.
• 5 years of experience in leadership roles, navigating projects and setting technical direction.
• 3 years of experience in audio and video processing, compression codecs, transcoding, formats, and large-scale systems.

Preferred qualifications:

• Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science or related technical field.
  
• 3 years of experience working in a complex, matrixed organization.
  
• Experience in projects like FFmpeg, or large audio video libraries.
• Ability to drive cross-functional teams towards large-scale deployment of software systems, error-free upgrades, and building long-term maintenance automation.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.