Staff Software Engineer, YouTube Ads, Agentic Video

Google’s YouTube Ads Creative team is embarking on a multi-year journey to redefine the global landscape of video advertising. Driven by our mission to deliver the right message to the right viewer at the right moment, we are leveraging Generative AI to build intelligent, automated systems that pioneer high-fidelity, at-scale video creative creation.

We are seeking a senior tech lead to drive the strategy, architecture, and delivery of our new agentic video creation application. In this role, you will bridge the gap between frontier AI capabilities and massive business impact, identify and infuse deep domain insights, and drive the technology evolution to power both co-pilot and auto-pilot creative experiences.

Google Ads is helping power the open internet with the best technology that connects and creates value for people, publishers, advertisers, and Google. We’re made up of multiple teams, building Google’s Advertising products including search, display, shopping, travel and video advertising, as well as analytics. Our teams create trusted experiences between people and businesses with useful ads. We help grow businesses of all sizes from small businesses, to large brands, to YouTube creators, with effective advertiser tools that deliver measurable results. We also enable Google to engage with customers at scale.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $207,000-$300,000 + 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

• Lead the technical strategy for AI video ads creation, synthesizing advertiser objectives, viewer expectations, and frontier technologies.
• Develop multi-modal agentic systems (e.g., context understanding, narrative design, video composition) to produce at-scale, agency-quality AI video creatives. 
• Adapt frontier generative media capabilities to the quality standards of the Ads domain. Establish metrics for evaluation and drive performance hillclimbing.
• Design robust, scalable APIs and microservices to expose generative video capabilities across the broader Ads ecosystem.
• Mentor junior engineers on the team.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience in software development.
  
• 5 years of experience leading applied AI/ML products (e.g., product development, model evaluation, quality hillclimbing, system design).
• Experience with common GenAI technologies.

Preferred qualifications:

• Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
• Experience with shipping 0-to-1 AI applications, and scaling to 100.
• Generative media related experience.
• Ads or video related experience.