Guillaume Verdier

Engineering leader at Google · E-commerce & AI · Zurich

Line drawing of Zurich: the Uetliberg, St. Peter, the Fraumünster, the Grossmünster and a tram along the Limmat, with a small figure waving and saying hi, I'm Guillaumehi, I'm Guillaume
let's talk

Today

I lead Shopping Partner Engineering at Google: a global organization of 33 people, managers and engineers, across Europe, the US and Asia. We look after the technical success of Google's e-commerce API ecosystem, used by millions of merchants, from global retailers to e-commerce platforms.

In industry terms, that is partner and solutions engineering, close to what is now called forward-deployed engineering (FDE): I was an FDE before it was cool, and now I lead them. I advise partners up to C-level and spend much of my time coaching people and growing leaders.

I also stay hands-on. I build AI prototypes and AI-powered e-commerce demos with MCP, WebMCP and A2A, work on agentic commerce protocols such as UCP, the Universal Commerce Protocol, and have trained 300+ engineers on AI tools. AI transformation, in e-commerce and well beyond it, is a topic I care a lot about.

Highlights

  • Grew from an entry-level individual contributor to global head of an engineering organization, through five promotions and 11 roles in Dublin, London and Zurich.
  • Top 4% at Google ("Transformative Impact") in each of the last two years as a senior manager, and several times before.
  • Set the 3-year technical strategy for Google's merchant ecosystem, influencing product and engineering roadmaps at VP and CEO level.
  • Turned around struggling teams through coaching and reorganization, and backfilled 40% attrition within a quarter with no drop in service.
  • Led the technical launch of Buy on Google in France with launch partners such as Carrefour, and built the support team from scratch (10 engineers).
  • Led the integration strategy for e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce and PrestaShop, contributing to a 50% year-over-year increase in new merchants.
  • First European hire after Google acquired Channel Intelligence: scaled EMEA operations from 1 to 12 people and reached $20M in first-year ad spend.

Path

I'm a mechanical engineer by training (ICAM, France) and went on to London Business School for a master's in management. I learned to code on the side, out of passion, and it became my job. Before Google, I was an early employee at Rangespan, a London start-up later acquired by Google.

I joined Google in 2011 in Dublin, moved to London, and have been in Zurich since 2018. Home has also been France, Brazil, Canada and the US. I work in French and English, also speak German (B1), and hold a Swiss C permit. Outside work, it's cycling, mountains, photography, video games and good food: everything you see in my logo. Most importantly, I'm a dad.

Let's talk

I'm open to all kinds of conversations. Topics I especially enjoy:

  • e-commerce and agentic commerce
  • AI-powered shopping
  • AI transformation, beyond e-commerce too
  • engineering leadership and coaching
  • side projects

A coffee in Zurich, a call, an idea, a project or an opportunity: just say hello.

Contact

Send me a note with the form below, or find me on LinkedIn and GitHub.