Software Engineer III, YouTube, Content ID Claiming

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.

The team is the central decision engine for Content ID, YouTube’s world-leading rights management platform. The team builds and operates the complex, real-time pipeline that orchestrates a suite of upstream signals from classic audio/visual fingerprinting to facial, speech and generative biometrics (e.g., LikenessID), as well as complex fictional and universe tracking (e.g., CharacterID). The team computes the authoritative, final claiming verdicts at a massive scale.
At YouTube, we believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share, and build community through our stories. We work together to give everyone the power to share their story, explore what they love, and connect with one another in the process. Working at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and boundless creativity, we move at the speed of culture with a shared goal to show people the world. We explore new ideas, solve real problems, and have fun — and we do it all together.

• Leverage multi-modal signals (e.g., visual/audio/melody matching) to generate highly accurate content claims.
• Identify unauthorized Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) reuse of human likeness (e.g., facial/voice), animated characters and fictional universes alongside classical copyright.
• Detect Content ID bypass tricks and identify bad references used for illicit monetization while protecting innocent creators.
• Build, run and maintain both our core quality systems and the underlying infrastructure that powers them.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 2 years of experience with software development in one or more programming languages, or 1 year of experience with an advanced degree.
• Experience with data analysis and signal quality testing.

Preferred qualifications:

• 2 years of experience with data structures and algorithms.
• Experience working with large-scale data processing pipelines.
• Experience with data analysis and statistical thinking enabling you to rigorously evaluate metrics, tune algorithms and make data-motivated decisions.
• Experience designing clean Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and interfaces that integrate cleanly with multiple upstream services.
• Familiarity or strong interest in signal processing, machine learning frameworks or biometric classification workflows.
• Strong code health advocacy, with experience writing comprehensive integration tests for complex logical state machines.