Tech Lead, Staff Software Engineering, YouTube Premium Acquisition

Google's software engineers develop the next-generation technologies that change how billions of users connect, explore, and interact with information and one another. Our products need to handle information at massive scale, and extend well beyond web search. We're looking for engineers who bring fresh ideas from all areas, including information retrieval, distributed computing, large-scale system design, networking and data storage, security, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, UI design and mobile; the list goes on and is growing every day. As a software engineer, you will work on a specific project critical to Google’s needs with opportunities to switch teams and projects as you and our fast-paced business grow and evolve. We need our engineers to be versatile, display leadership qualities and be enthusiastic to take on new problems across the full-stack as we continue to push technology forward.

With your technical expertise you will manage project priorities, deadlines, and deliverables. You will design, develop, test, deploy, maintain, and enhance software solutions.

YouTube Premium is the largest subscription product in YouTube. As a Staff Software Engineer and Tech Lead for YouTube Premium Acquisition, you will drive the multi-quarter technical direction and architecture for YouTube Premium growth and subscriber acquisition. You will balance feature velocity and business OKRs with continuous technical evolution, ensuring high system reliability, performance, and developer velocity. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional partners, serve as the ultimate technical authority for Premium Acquisition systems, and mentor software engineers to foster architectural quality and maintainability across client and backend 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.

Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $207000 - $300000 (USD) + 20% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Set multi-quarter technical direction and architecture, balancing feature velocity and business OKRs with technical evolution to enhance developer velocity and operational resilience.
• Lead engineering efforts across the full technology stack—including backend infrastructure, machine learning models, and web frontends—to build end-to-end user experiences.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional partners across Engineering, Product, and Marketing to define product roadmaps and drive implementation.
• Iterate rapidly on product features, design and execute A/B experiments, and launch scalable capabilities that drive subscriber growth for YouTube Premium.
• Provide technical mentorship and architectural guidance to team members while promoting software engineering best practices across the organization.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience in software development.
• 8 years of experience in large-scale software design, system architecture, and technical leadership.
• 3 years of experience as a tech lead guiding engineering teams and defining architectural roadmaps.

Preferred qualifications:

• 8 years of experience with data structures and algorithms.
• 2 years of experience designing and operating large-scale data pipelines and analytics systems.
• 2 years of experience with machine learning model training, tuning, and deployment.