Staff Technical Lead, Games Performance, Android System Health

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.

Gaming represents the single largest category on Android by user engagement, visual complexity, and hardware demand. Games push mobile devices to their absolute limits—demanding sustained frame rates, low latency, and tight thermal management across a device ecosystem. Every player, whether on an entry-level phone or a flagship device, deserves a smooth experience.

Android is Google’s mobile operating system powering more than 3 billion devices worldwide. Android is about bringing computing to everyone in the world. We believe computing is a super power for good, enabling access to information, economic opportunity, productivity, connectivity between friends and family and more. We think everyone in the world should have access to the best computing has to offer. We provide the platform for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and developers to build compelling computing devices (smartphones, tablets, TVs, wearables, etc) that run the best apps/services for everyone in the world.Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

Romania: lei500000 - lei515000 (RON) + 20% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities:

• Provide technical leadership on projects. Influence and coach a distributed team of engineers. Facilitate alignment and clarity across teams on goals, outcomes, and timelines.
  
• Collaborate with game engine maintainers (Unity, Unreal) and leading game studios to optimize engine runtime architectures, frame scheduling, render graph pipelines, shader compilation, and memory allocators.
• Develop diagnostic tools, automated regression detection, and best-practice optimization playbooks to assist global and regional game developers in building stutter-free, thermally efficient games on Android.
• Partner with platform rendering and graphics teams (Choreographer) to investigate, measure, and eliminate jank, frame deadline misses, and compositor bottlenecks in high-load gaming workloads.
• Build and adapt advanced memory instrumentation, profiling tools, and memory budget frameworks to prevent game Out-Of-Memory (OOM) crashes, paging stalls, and background app evictions. Comply with all company health and safety policies, procedures, and legal requirements.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
  
• 8 years of experience programming in one or more programming languages (e.g., C++, C#, Rust).
• 5 years of experience testing, and launching software products.
  
• 3 years of experience with software design and architecture.

Preferred qualifications:

• Master’s degree or PhD in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
  
• 3 years of experience in a technical leadership role leading project teams and setting technical direction.
  
• Previous experience with game engine architecture and runtime performance (Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot, or custom in-house engines).
• Experience with modern graphics APIs (e.g., Vulkan, OpenGL ES) or GPU rendering pipelines.
• Experience with performance profiling and tracing tools (e.g., Perfetto, Linux perf, GPU profilers).
• Experience integrating generative AI tools or LLM interfaces into workflows.