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(Reuters) - Longtime Google Inc executive Megan Smith is a top candidate for the role of United States' chief technology officer, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Smith is vice president at Google's secret lab "Google X" which is devoted to "moon shot" projects such as driverless cars and Google Glass smart eyewear and overseen by co-founder Sergey Brin, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She led many of the company's early acquisitions, including picture service Picasa and Keyhole and Where2Tech, whose technologies drove Google Earth and Maps.
The chief technology officer advises the U.S. president on technology policy issues.
The job was most recently held by Todd Park, who announced on Thursday he is resigning and relocating to California to recruit skilled technology experts into government roles.
Park, who had built a reputation as a successful information technology entrepreneur, was thrust into the public spotlight during the disastrous roll out of the Affordable Care Act in the fall of 2013.
While not in charge of the technology behind the flawed HealthCare.gov web portal that crashed when thousands of Americans tried to sign up for health insurance, he was one of several administration officials summoned to Congress to explain the breakdown.
Google was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by Soham Chatterjee in Bangalore; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)