Principal Software Engineer, Ads Infrastructure

Location: Palo Alto / San Francisco
Department: Engineering
Job Type: Regular

Company Overview:

Pinterest is a leading platform where millions of people find inspiration every day. Our mission is to help users create lives they love by discovering new ideas and possibilities. As part of our engineering team, you will contribute to this mission by solving complex data and technology challenges that improve Pinterest’s services, including ads, machine learning, and monetization systems.

Position Overview:

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to play a key role in the redesign and scaling of our core ads infrastructure. This position will focus on modernizing our catalog indexing, ad delivery, and machine learning platforms to support Pinterest’s growing advertising ecosystem. You will have the opportunity to work with cross-functional teams, re-architecting critical infrastructure systems at scale to improve performance, scalability, and reliability.

Key Responsibilities:

Re-architect core systems for catalog, ads indexing, and serving to improve scalability, performance, and reliability. Technologies involved include MySQL, TiDB, Flink, and HNSW.
Modernize the ML ecosystem for Pinterest Ads, replacing outdated stacks with a unified, privacy-first system using tools like PyTorch, Spark, Iceberg, and GPU-based serving.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define complex problems and drive solutions that align with business goals.
Mentor and guide engineers, providing technical leadership to ensure high standards of system design and implementation.

Qualifications:

Education: BS in Computer Science or related field (advanced degree preferred).
Experience: 10+ years in distributed systems, transactional data stores, and systems programming.
Skills: Proficiency in Java, C++, or Python. Experience with high-performance infrastructure for ads, recommendation, or search platforms.
Problem-solving: Proven track record in solving end-user problems and improving productivity through system design.
Leadership: Experience in mentoring teams and influencing technical decisions across large-scale systems.

Additional Information:

This position follows a hybrid work model, requiring in-office collaboration in Palo Alto or San Francisco.
Salary Range: $274,473—$480,328 USD (final salary based on experience, location, and skills).

Pinterest’s Commitment to Inclusion:

Pinterest is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds and provide equal consideration without regard to race, color, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected status.