Lead ML model development for Google's ad creative composition and delivery systems

This Senior SWE role owns end-to-end development of ML models — deep learning, reinforcement learning, generative AI — that power automatic construction and selection of ad creative elements at Google. The JD asks for someone who sets technical strategy for ML components, builds scalable ML pipelines with infra teams, and mentors engineers, working at the intersection of GenAI, large-scale distributed systems, and ad product needs.

Practice this interview

Free · a live voice mock calibrated to this exact role

Start the mock interview

Likely format

Google's standard SWE loop typically includes phone screens on coding/algorithms, followed by an onsite with coding, ML system design, and Googleyness/leadership rounds.

What this interview tests

End-to-end ML model development (deep learning, RL, generative AI) to production
Setting technical strategy/roadmap for ML components
Building scalable ML pipelines with infra/serving teams
Experimentation and measuring algorithmic impact (creative selection, freshness, exploration)
Mentoring engineers and driving best practices in applied ML

Common question themes

Describe an ML model you shipped from concept to production and the architecture behind it

How did you set technical direction for an ML system and get buy-in across teams

Explain an explore/exploit or freshness tradeoff you handled in a recommendation or ad system

How do you evaluate whether an ML change moved the right metric

Mentoring: how have you leveled up other engineers on ML system design

How candidates describe it

Real Senior Software Engineer interview stories — retold from candidates' public write-ups, with sources.

Bloomberg · Senior Software EngineerOffer

Bloomberg Senior Software Engineer Interview: Five Rounds, Offer

A Senior Software Engineer candidate applied to Bloomberg's London office through the company's careers site and, after an initial screen, went through five separate on-site conversations covering coding, system design, a recruiter chat, and a hiring-manager round, ultimately accepting an offer.

Interviewed October 2022 · London, United Kingdom

Google · L3 Software EngineerOffer

Google L3 software engineer interview: phone screen, four coding rounds, and the Googleyness round

A candidate with two years of experience went from recruiter outreach to offer over about four months. The onsite was four 45-minute coding rounds — three of them featuring binary trees — and one round turned into a 25-minute chain of follow-ups about approximating an optimal solution at scale.

Interviewed June 2020 · Bangalore, IN

Google · L4 Software EngineerNo offer

Google L4 Software Engineer Interview: Eight Rounds, No Offer

An L4 Software Engineer candidate went through two phone screens, three onsite rounds, a culture conversation, and a team-matching call with a Google hiring manager, then watched the process stall for about a month and a half over a tightened experience requirement before an added extended round ended without an offer.

Interviewed February 2024 · Not specified

View the original posting

All Google Senior Software Engineer interviews

All Google interviews