Google manager lives in California but calls Penticton home
Google manager says South Okanagan reminds him of new home in California
If you’ve ever wondered who’s in charge of keeping your online identity safe, just Google him. Google product manager Steven Soneff runs his own team at the company headquarters in California, but he didn’t always reside in the United States.
Soneff hails from Penticton, born and raised — at least until school age — and still holds fond memories of the South Okanagan.
“We would go to the playground at (Skaha) Lake, and I have distinct memories of that,” he said, adding the summer show by the Snowbirds military aerobatics team left an impact on him, too.
“I remember distinctly being terrified of the sound,” he said, laughing.
Soneff can’t quite remember which elementary school he attended, and he moved away to later attend schools around the province, but he still calls Penticton home.
He added the South Okanagan reminds him in many ways of his new home in California.
“My sister lives in Osoyoos,” he said. “The weather there is so warm compared to the rest of Canada. I really think it’s just a beautiful place with the lake and the hills. There’s a lot of similar scenery to (California).”
Growing up, Soneff always had a passion for math, science and numbers, entering competitions for fun.
While completing his education at the University of Alberta before moving on to the University of Waterloo, Soneff took part in co-ops with Google as a student.
That eventually “evolved into a full career,” Soneff said, and he now manages his own team.
“Product managers at Google are a type of engineer that think about what types of services Google is building, and how we decide what features to add,” he said.
“The area I work on is our account security and authentication.”
Soneff said Gmail users will come across his work when signing up and adding their own information.
“There’s a lot of security checks to make sure it’s the right person accessing,” he said. “We do a lot of work to keep (hackers) out.”