# Michael Yu-Ta Lu > Staff Software Engineer / Technical Lead / Manager at YouTube Location: Santa Clara, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/michaelyutalu I'm an engineering lead who is excited about building and growing consumer facing products. I have had the honor to lead and manage teams working on some of the world's most used products, ranging from YouTube, Google Search, and Android, optimizing for different business goals such as growing content outreach, bootstrapping the e-commerce business, and strengthening the device ecosystem. I pay keen attention to both a product's user experience and engineering quality - such a habit was developed through years of product development experience plus my education background on both computer science and human-computer interaction. I'm also passionate about growing people and teams to maximize their potentials. ## Work Experience ### Staff Software Engineer / Eng Manager @ YouTube Jan 2022 – Present | San Bruno, California, United States Since Dec 2023, I started leading a team of both front-end and quality engineers to build features on YouTube Home, where GenAI is part of the solution space. Yes - It's the first page that you see when you either open the mobile app, or visit YouTube from your browser. Prior to the role, I was an eng lead on the YouTube Shopping team, where I • Bootstrapped a team almost from the ground up, focusing on developing e-commerce features for Shorts viewers and creators. I hired and trained the team, and connected this new team with the rest of the org that's primarily based in another site, all while I was new to the org myself. See https://www.glossy.co/beauty/as-glossier-realigns-it-taps-youtubes-new-shoppable-shorts-challenge/ as an example of what we shipped. • Led the team through major org changes; brought structure, influenced the shape of the future org, and helped the team settle through the transition. • Led a team to develop the platform and merchant facing features that allow external merchants to operate their affiliate business on YouTube. ### Staff Software Engineer / Eng Manager @ Google Jan 2018 – Jan 2022 | Mountain View I started helping grow the Pixel phone software team in Google Taiwan since Feb 2019. My core responsibilities included • Leading/managing engineering teams. I managed a team of 36 people with up to 5 managers. My team built the core Android/Pixel experience that EVERY Android user sees and needs. The areas and products we focused on were around user onboarding (including Android/Pixel Setup Wizard, iOS user switching, and Pixel user education/retention), and configuration (Android/Pixel Settings, and battery experience). • Developing Google culture and processes within the org. I brought in Google's value, mindset, and expectations to the org that's relatively new to Google. I helped steer org-level efforts, such as shaping the performance review process that needed to take into account both the Google standard and the special situation of the org. • Coaching managers and ICs. I helped people on their career and daily challenges on both projects and people issues. ### Senior Software Engineer @ Google Jan 2015 – Jan 2018 | Mountain View Google Search App on Android • Led/Managed a team to deliver search features on Android and Pixel homescreens that drove the growth of the search product. We made the search experience feel naturally integrated into the phone's launcher, built the At-A-Glance feature which surfaces instant info (such as weather) on the homescreen, and pushed the Google-powered -1 screen (i.e the screen to the left of the homescreen) to millions of devices from a very small number. • Drove cross-team / cross-function / cross-company collaborations. • Co-created processes to improve the app's reliability and quality. Google Search App on Windows 10 • Led the effort to ship Google Search App for Windows 10. ### Software Engineer @ Google Jan 2012 – Jan 2015 | Mountain View Google Search App on Windows 8 • Developed core UI and features. Launched in Windows App Store in 2012. Chrome New Tab Page • Improved the quality and product excellence of Chrome's new search-focused New Tab Page. Launched in 2013. ### Software Development Engineering Intern @ Microsoft Jan 2011 – Jan 2011 | Redmond Developed a new API to expose metrics from the Speech Recognition Core to help internal developers understand the cause of the recognition results. ### Ensign, Information Systems Reserve Officer @ The Taiwan Navy Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 I served my mandatory military service as an information security consultant in the Communication and Information Security Command in the Taiwan Navy. My job was to monitor and deal with the information security situations in the command and six subordinary units, as well as to ensure the reliability and availability of some important online servers in the mlitary network. ## Education ### MS in Computer Science Stanford University ### BS in Computer Science and Information Engineering National Taiwan University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/michael-yu-ta-lu-12712526 --- Source: https://flows.cv/michaelyutalu JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/michaelyutalu/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-12