I work on the search systems that serve things like calendar, gmail, and other private data stores. In terms of the types of problems, some of the stuff I do is

I work on the search systems that serve things like calendar, gmail, and other private data stores. In terms of the types of problems, some of the stuff I do is paying off technical debt (fixing mistakes that were made earlier in the system's design), and I'm also working on a big migration from one storage backend to another (sorry, can't go into detail). Earlier this year I spent time using a SAT solver to assist with query planning. There's a variety of different sorts of work, even within a single project, and you can often guide the sorts of problems you want to target by telling your manager what you're interested in.