About the job

We are the core team behind the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard designed to redefine digital commerce. UCP provides a common language for merchants, payment providers, identity systems, and AI agents to interact seamlessly and securely. We are building the foundational infrastructure for the future of agentic commerce.

As a Principal Engineer, you will be instrumental in shaping the future of commerce by directly designing protocol schema and interfaces for commerce capabilities like identity linking, checkout, payments, etc. You will provide technical leadership in charting the protocol, technical direction, building the tools that drive its adoption, and engaging with a global community of partners and developers.

In this role, you will lead a technical committee with architects and distinguished engineers across the industry to shape how commerce gets built for the agentic era. You will also lead the technical expansion of the protocol into different verticals and international markets.

Users come first at Google. Nowhere is this more important than on our Advertising and Commerce team: we believe that ads and commercial information can be highly useful to our users if that information is relevant to what our users wish to find or do. Advertisers worldwide use Google Ads to promote their products; publishers use Ad Sense to serve relevant ads on their website; and business around the world use our products (like Google Shopping, and Google Wallet) to support their online businesses and bring users into their offline stores. We are constantly innovating to deliver the most effective advertising and commerce opportunities of tomorrow.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $307,000-$427,000 + 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 design and evolution of the UCP core protocol, including new capabilities, extensions, and handler models for identity, payments, and future verticals.

• Author and refine technical specifications, JSON schemas, OpenAPI/OpenRPC definitions, and enhancement proposals for review by the Tech Council (TC).

• Design, build, and maintain high-quality Software Development Kits (SDKs), validation tools, reference implementations to accelerate protocol adoption and ensure compliance.

• Serve as a technical leader within the UCP community, engaging with Domain Working Groups (DWGs), partners, and contributors to drive consensus, gather feedback, and guide technical implementations.

• Provide technical direction and mentorship to contributors and team members, establishing best practices for API design, security, extensibility, and backwards compatibility. Work closely with TC and Governing Council (GC) on the protocol roadmap and governance processes.

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or other relevant engineering discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

• 15 years of experience working as a technical software engineering leader.

• 10 years of experience in software development, with a focus on API design, protocol development, or large-scale distributed systems.

Preferred qualifications

• Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science, Mathematics, or other relevant engineering discipline.

• Experience designing for extensibility and backwards compatibility in APIs or protocols.

• Experience in the domains of e-commerce, payments (e.g. PCI-DSS), or identity (e.g., OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, Web Authn, Verifiable Credentials).

• Experience leading the architecture of large-scale integration platforms, SDKs, or protocols.

• Experience building and maintaining developer tools, SDKs, or libraries used by external developers.