Jaishankar Sundararaman '08

Senior Director of Software Engineering, Google

As a Senior Engineering Director at Google, I am responsible for leading the engineering for Gmail. After finishing my undergraduate studies in India, I joined Virginia Tech in 2006 to pursue my master’s degree in computer science. After graduation, I joined Google to work in the field of distributed systems, a field I am deeply passionate to this day. I live in the San Francisco Bay area with my wife and two boys, ages 12 and 8. We are avid travelers and recently came back from a trip to Iceland.

How did the department equip you for the ‘real world’...
Under the tutelage of Dr. Godmar Back, I was introduced to research in the field of programming languages and file systems. This foundation provided me with strong system skills that came in handy when I joined Google and helped design the Gmail backend.

Being a Virginia Tech alumnus means...
The Hokie spirit! I am proud to say that every Hokie I have met shared the spirit of trust and friendship. I also remember April 16, 2007, the day we lost many of our fellow Hokies, and took a stand against gun violence.

My fondest memory of my time in the department is...
I still remember the long nights I spent at the Corporate Research Center working on my master’s thesis with my fellow research mates, which is one of the best times of my life.

Being the ‘Outstanding Masters Student’ awardee was important to me because…
It helped me strengthen my conviction that hard work and perseverance pays off. I am thankful to the department for placing the trust in me and giving opportunities to assist with teaching and research. This experience helped me grow both personally and professionally.

The work project/initiative that I’m most excited about is...
I am super excited for this new world of ML/AI opened up by GenAI and Large Language Models (LLMs). These technologies are opening up a new world of possibilities and helps bring new product capabilities better and faster. At Google and Gmail, I have been leading efforts that utilize these technologies and we have been seeing our users adopt them at a healthy pace and in turn help them improve their productivity. These kinds of technological innovations make my day, every day!

Updated on: 9/9/24