Engineering Manager, Technical Lead, Google Photos

Sydney NSW, Australia Until 9/1/2026 8+ years exp First posted July 3, 2026 Last posted July 3, 2026
Job description

About the Job

Like Google's own ambitions, the work of a Software Engineer goes beyond just Search. Software Engineering Managers have not only the technical expertise to take on and provide technical leadership to major projects, but also manage a team of Engineers. You not only optimize your own code but make sure Engineers are able to optimize theirs. As a Software Engineering Manager you manage your project goals, contribute to product strategy and help develop your team. Teams work all across the company, in areas such as information retrieval, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, distributed computing, large-scale system design, networking, security, data compression, user interface design; the list goes on and is growing every day. Operating with scale and speed, our exceptional software engineers are just getting started -- and as a manager, you guide the way.

With technical and leadership expertise, you manage engineers across multiple teams and locations, a large product budget and oversee the deployment of large-scale projects across multiple sites internationally.

Our video editing backend team is brand new, as we are starting to leverage the power of Gemini in the video space.

In this role, you will have the opportunity to shape the team from scratch and work alongside local cross-functional experts to deliver on the mission to use the power of AI to craft the stories of users' lives. With video now comprising a major share of the corpus, we have a huge opportunity to make video storytelling a powerful tool for the users to express themselves and preserve their life moments forever.

Google Photos is a photo sharing and storage service developed by Google. Photos is one of the most sought after products at Google and is looking for both client-side (web and mobile), with server-side (search, storage, serving) and machine intelligence (learning, computer vision) Software Engineers. We are dedicated to making Google experiences centered around the user.

Responsibilities

  • Technical leadership - define and influence technical direction and long-term strategy in conjunction with other Engineering Managers and Tech Leads, helping the team make balanced tradeoffs, and prioritize engineering excellence investments in a systemic way.
  • People management - formal career management and coaching to help your team grow in directions that are exciting to them. We can tailor team size and characteristics to match your experience, strengths and interests.
  • People management - formal career management and coaching to help your team grow in directions that are exciting to them. We can tailor team size and characteristics to match your experience, strengths and interests.

Qualifications

Minimum qualifications:

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
  • 8 years of experience with software development in one or more programming languages (e.g., Python, C, C++, Java, JavaScript).
  • 3 years of experience in a technical leadership role; overseeing projects, with 2 years of experience in a people management, supervision/team leadership role.
  • 5 years of experience building full stack solutions, platforms or infrastructure.


Preferred qualifications:

  • Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science or related technical field.
  • 3 years of experience working in a changing organization.
  • 3 years of experience in designing, maintaining, and improving engineering systems.

Additional Information

At Google, we have a vision of empowerment and equitable opportunity for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and commit to building reconciliation through Google’s technology, platforms and people and we welcome Indigenous applicants. Please see our Reconciliation Action Plan for more information.

About this role

Summary

Lead and manage software engineering teams developing Google Photos' backend and AI features.

Job title

Engineering Manager, Technical Lead, Google Photos

Experience level

8+ years

Minimum experience

8+ years exp

Industry

software

Location requirements

Sydney NSW, Australia; remote work not specified.

Salary

Not specified

Management role

Yes

Skills & keywords

Required skills

programming: Python, C, C++, Java, JavaScriptpeople managementproject oversightfull stack solutionssystem design

Preferred skills

master's degreePhDorganizational change experiencesystem improvement

Specializations

full stackdistributed computingartificial intelligencecomputer visionlarge-scale system design
Locations

Structured locations inferred from the posting.

Sydney NSW, Australia

Work arrangement unknown City