Principal Engineer, Geo Makers

As a Principal Engineer, you will define the platform strategy for Google Maps Platform's API, GenAI, and Analytics portfolios, positioning Google as the foundational engine for global geospatial AI intelligence. By partnering with cross-functional leadership, you will unlock the full potential of GenAI to deliver innovative features that impact over 10 million developers and global Google Earth users. Your leadership will directly shape products that provide critical geospatial intelligence, including initiatives capable of driving planetary-scale climate impact.

A core complexity of this role is leading the transition of our platform to support autonomous AI agents in addition to human developers. You will architect this transformation while upholding the high bar of reliability and scale that has defined Google’s geospatial brand for over two decades. This role requires sophisticated influence across a broad spectrum of organizations, including Geo Makers, Cloud, Core, Google DeepMind, and Google Research. You will be responsible for harmonizing disparate roadmaps across these teams to build unified, cross-functional technology stacks. Success in this role depends on your ability to align stakeholders with varying priorities toward a singular, indispensable platform vision and implementation plan with frequent milestones, despite resource constraints.

The Geo team is focused on building the most accurate, comprehensive, and useful maps for our users, through products like Maps, Earth, Street View, Google Maps Platform, and more. Every month, more than a billion people rely on Maps services to explore the world and navigate their daily lives.

The Geo team also enables developers to use the power of Google Maps platforms to enhance their apps and websites. As they plot a course for the future of mapping, they are solving complex computer science problems, designing beautiful and intuitive product experiences, and improving our understanding of the real world.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $294,000-$414,000 + 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

• Architect technical alignment across Geo, Cloud, and Google DeepMind tech stacks to ensure the infrastructure remains indispensable to developers and enterprises building next-generation AI products. 
• Work on technical challenges in agentic workflows, AI grounding, and geospatial analytics, integrating Google’s foundational models—such as Gemini and GenMedia. 
• Serve as a cornerstone of our senior IC community, fostering a culture of mentorship and strategic influence that elevates technical excellence across Google.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or other relevant engineering discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 15 years of experience working as a technical software engineering leader.
  
• Experience with technical innovation within cross-functional engineering environments.
• 5 years of experience in data, analytics, or AI/ML products, services, and solutions for cloud.
  
• Experience in deploying products and services that conform to the standards of safety, privacy and regulatory requirements.

Preferred qualifications:

• Master's or PhD degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or other relevant engineering discipline.
• Experience partnering effectively with cross-functional teams, including research scientists, product counsel, and policy regulators.
• Experience working with developer facing products or enterprise software.
• Familiarity with Cloud Computing platforms and concepts (GCP, etc.).
• Strong expertise building Gen AI, ML products, agent frameworks, agent protocols (e.g., MCP, A2A), RAG, prompt engineering, evals.