Sam Hopkins

Senior Software Engineer at Google DeepMind · London, UK

Sam Hopkins on a glacier hike in Iceland, smiling with an orange climbing helmet and a Google DeepMind bag

I lead technical strategy and execution for Google DeepMind's large-scale compute infrastructure — automated governance frameworks, petabyte-scale data pipelines, and resource optimization systems that accelerate research on core Gemini models.

Experience

  1. 2024 – Present

    Senior Software Engineer · Google DeepMind

    Leading technical strategy for DeepMind's compute ecosystem — the infrastructure that keeps large-scale AI research moving.

    • Spearheaded a multi-quarter migration of 170+ clusters to centralized capacity systems.
    • Built an automated approval framework and data-driven quota management system handling hundreds of requests a day, cutting manual overhead for Tier-1 AI projects.
    • Drove resource reclamation recovering 40% of underutilized CPU/RAM and oversaw TPU auxiliary fulfillment, resulting in multi-billion dollar savings.
    • Architected data lifecycle solutions migrating hundreds of PiB to cold storage while preserving strict data governance.
    • Active in the AI community — volunteering at conferences like ICLR 2025 and PyData London, speaking and hosting events at BYU — and a technical interviewer for senior engineering talent.

  2. 2022 – 2024

    Software Engineer · Google

    Worked on system architecture and design of platforms for Google's workloads, maximizing performance while minimizing cost.

  3. 2019 – 2021

    Software Engineer · MasterControl

    Joined as an intern and grew into a full-time engineer building MasterControl's cloud product with Java, Angular, and AWS.

    • Led construction of REST API endpoints behind a $1M revenue increase.
    • Shipped features saving customers over 1,000 hours of training; won the company's 2021 Innovation Week.

  4. 2020

    AI Research Assistant · Brigham Young University

    Researched peer-to-peer relationship pattern analysis via AI, and led development of a chat interface where 20 bots and humans interact online.

Education

2015 – 2020

Brigham Young University

BASc in Computer Science · Magna cum laude

Off the clock

When I'm not wrangling compute, I'm usually outside — preferably somewhere cold, high up, or both.

Sam giving a peace sign next to a Hopkins Street W1 street sign in London
Found my street — Soho, London
Sam grinning while holding a small black dog wearing a rainbow bow tie
Board meeting with the chief morale officer
Sam standing on the bow of an expedition ship surrounded by Arctic sea ice
Bow of a ship, somewhere in the Arctic
Sam walking along the Seven Sisters cliffs in East Sussex
Seven Sisters, East Sussex
Sam backpacking above a lake in the Lake District
Backpacking the Lake District
Sam giving a peace sign on a rocky summit above the clouds
Above the clouds