Tech Lead, BigQuery Multimodal Strategy and Architecture

Tech Lead, BigQuery Multimodal Strategy and Architecture

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corporate_fareGoogleplaceKirkland, WA, USA

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Experience driving progress, solving problems, and mentoring more junior team members; deeper expertise and applied knowledge within relevant area.

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XIn most instances, this position requires in-person interviews as part of the hiring process.

In accordance with Washington state law, we are highlighting our comprehensive benefits package, which is available to all eligible US based employees. Benefits for this role include:

• Health, dental, vision, life, disability insurance
• Retirement Benefits: 401(k) with company match
• Paid Time Off: 20 days of vacation per year, accruing at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period for the first five years of employment
• Sick Time: 40 hours/year (increased to 69 hours/year for Seattle) including 5 discretionary sick days per instance
• Maternity Leave (Short-Term Disability + Baby Bonding): 28-30 weeks
• Baby Bonding Leave: 18 weeks
• Holidays: 13 paid days per year

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5 years of experience in software development, with experience in C++ or Go.
• 3 years of experience designing and optimizing distributed systems, storage architectures, or database internals (columnar storage formats, serialization, or query execution engines).

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with next-generation or specialized file formats like Vortex, Lance, Nimble, or FastLanes.
• Experience with vector search (ANN) and building storage layers optimized for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and multimodal data.
• Strong understanding of modern machine learning data pipelines, including how PyTorch/TensorFlow consume data and the I/O bottlenecks of AI training.
• History of successful contributions to major open-source data projects (e.g., Apache Arrow, Parquet, Iceberg).

About the job

BigQuery is at a pivotal moment in the evolution of cloud data warehouses. The industry is seeing a massive shift in file format momentum-with next-generation columnar formats like Vortex redefining core analytics performance, and multimodal formats like Lance pulling data gravity toward AI/ML training and vector search workloads.

We are seeking a visionary Tech Lead to own the goal, strategy, and architectural design for BigQuery's file format. In this role, you will define how BigQuery adapts to these industry shifts, whether by evolving our native Capacitor format, adopting and extending open-source standards like Vortex, or bridging the gap to AI-native lakehouses.Google Cloud accelerates every organization's ability to digitally transform its business and industry. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google's cutting-edge technology, and tools that help developers build more sustainably. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $174000 - $252000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end technical strategy for BigQuerys storage formats. Determine the roadmap for our existing proprietary formats (Capacitor) versus adopting or contributing to emerging open standards (Vortex, Lance, BtrBlocks).
• Design storage layer innovations that unlock zero-copy column updates/additions, extremely efficient random access, and seamless integration with deep learning training pipelines.
• Partner with Dremel, BigLake, and GCS teams to ensure our execution engine seamlessly adopts next-generation formats without regressing SQL concurrency.
• Position Google as a thought leader in the open data lakehouse ecosystem, steering the direction of the formats that will define the next decade of data infrastructure.
• Lead technical and ROI evaluations of open-source formats. Determine engineering costs to integrate Arrow-native execution with BigQuery pipelines for wide tables and multimodal AI.

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Google is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to building a workforce that is representative of the users we serve, creating a culture of belonging, and providing an equal employment opportunity regardless of race, creed, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), expecting or parents-to-be, criminal histories consistent with legal requirements, or any other basis protected by law. See also Googles EEO Policy, Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal, Belonging at Google, and How we hire.

If you have a need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form.

Google is a global company and, in order to facilitate efficient collaboration and communication globally, English proficiency is a requirement for all roles unless stated otherwise in the job posting.

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Equity is granted exclusively and discretionarily by Alphabet Inc. on the basis of an agreement concluded between you and Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. is your sole contractual partner with respect to equity grants. GSU grants are not guaranteed, are discretionary, are subject to approval by the Alphabet Inc. board of directors or its delegate, the terms of the relevant Alphabet Inc. stock plan, and your grant agreement. They have no impact on statutory payments. Current or past grants do not confer an acquired right.