# Guoqiang Pan

> More Distributed Systems

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/guoqiangpan

I am a no-nonsense, hands-on, 50% TL/50% IC (as previously at Google).

I believe that deep experience with a system can only come from working/developing/debugging intimately inside the system. Developing good abstraction is important, but knowing when they are broken is equally important.

I believe that trying (and sometimes failing) is crucial to progress. Prototypes, no matter how primitive, are as useful to planning as well-thought-out designs. Failed prototypes, if they have exposed previously unknown-unknowns, are equally valuable.

I believe in being a "guide" in addition to a leader. A lead's role is not to prescribe, but to plot out broad strokes on a map and more importantly, to mark out the monsters and traps. I believe in the team's ability to grow beyond me.

Most importantly, I believe in being an engineer. I believe with enough effort, we can get a better understanding of the world and make it a better place.

## Work Experience
### Software Engineer @ Hudson River Trading
Jan 2026 – Present

### Software Engineer @ Google
Jan 2006 – Jan 2026 | San Francisco Bay Area
2018-Current Google Cloud - Spanner (Staff Software Engineer/Co-Lead for Spanner Schema)
- Co-Lead for the spanner schema system (Focus area: Scaliability)

2013-2018 Google Photos (Staff Software Engineer/Lead for photos database)
- Photos backend
- Photos database: Drove the migration from MegaStore to Spanner.

2006-2013 Google Maps (Software Engineer III, Senior Software Engineer, Staff Software Engineer/Lead)
- Google Maps Frontend
- Map data ingestion pipeline
- Google local business indexing
- Map data collection and processing

### Summer Research Intern @ NEC Labs America
Jan 2002 – Jan 2002


## Education
### MS in PHD, Computer Science
Rice University

### MS in Computer Science
East China University of Science and Technology

### BS in Computer Science
East China University of Science and Technology

### A-level in Double Math, Physics, Chemistry
King Edward VII School, Sheffield


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/guoqiang-pan-1393086

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Source: https://flows.cv/guoqiangpan
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/guoqiangpan/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-11