Google announced Android 9 Pie on Monday, but it also announced a new head for its Android Open Source Project or AOSP, in Jeff Bailey. He has been at Google for over ten years already, as an engineer. And now he’s taking the reigns of its open source project. Since joining Google in 2007, Bailey has worked on the Open Source Programs team, as well as the Google Toolbar, Chrome, Language Platforms and then joined the Android team earlier this year.
In the Google Groups post on Monday, stating that the source code for Android 9 Pie had been uploaded to AOSP, Bailey also announced that he was the new Tech Lead/Manager for AOSP, and introduced himself a bit. The Tech Lead/Manager role had typically included maintaining the repository, managing source code, as well as releasing Google’s contributions to open source. He’s basically in charge of everything having to do with AOSP, which is something Google has to do in regards to Android, since it is an open source platform, and that’s what allows users to be able to tinker with the code and install custom ROMs on their smartphones and other Android devices.
The Tech Lead position in AOSP can be a pretty demanding job, getting requests from developers for different things, and then Google wanting something else done. This was evident when Jean-Baptiste Queru was the Tech Lead at AOSP, and abruptly left in 2013. But Bailey will be the go-to person for all issues with AOSP now. This change won’t have much to do with users, seeing as AOSP is really only there for developers to download the code and mess around with the code there to do different things. For most users, they won’t even know who Jeff Bailey is, and that is likely a good thing for Bailey, as it means he is doing his job.