Pinterest is hiring a remote Principal Engineer AI Platform!
Pinterest is hiring a Principal Engineer to lead technical direction for its AI Platform team, the group responsible for the infrastructure underpinning both generative AI and recommender systems across the company's products. The platform handles petabyte-scale data orchestration, model training and fine-tuning, and high-performance inference that serves hundreds of millions of requests per second for more than 600 million monthly users. This is a senior individual-contributor leadership role focused on setting strategy, driving initiatives that span multiple organizations, and raising engineering standards rather than managing a team directly. The position is listed as remote, but the successful candidate must live within commuting distance of the Palo Alto or San Francisco office and appear on-site once or twice per quarter for collaborative work; no relocation assistance is offered. Base pay is posted at $242,634 to $499,541 USD, plus equity, with final offers depending on location, experience, and specialized skills.
Key responsibilities
- Define the long-term technical vision and roadmap for the AI Platform, tying platform investments to business priorities and company strategy.
- Lead cross-functional, company-wide initiatives spanning generative AI (multimodal data management, post-training, evaluation, batch and online inference) and recommender systems (feature stores, training infrastructure, large-scale inference).
- Drive development of AI-powered tooling that automates and connects stages of the ML lifecycle to boost developer productivity.
- Influence architecture decisions across teams and align engineers, partner organizations, and executives around a shared technical direction.
- Champion a collaborative, inclusive team culture and give candid, constructive feedback that helps engineers and teams grow.
- Set and uphold a high bar for engineering quality, ownership, and accountability from design through production operation.
Key requirements
- Deep hands-on expertise in AI/ML infrastructure and distributed systems, including designing and operating highly available production systems at large scale.
- Proficiency in at least one of C++, Java, or Rust, with strong technical judgment.
- A demonstrated record of company-wide or cross-organizational impact: leading ambiguous initiatives, setting technical strategy, and influencing senior stakeholders.
- Strong ownership mindset and a consistent standard for engineering integrity and end-to-end delivery of outcomes.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a closely related field.
- Ability to work on-site in Palo Alto or San Francisco one to two times per quarter; relocation support is not provided.
- Seniority: Principal Engineer
- Work mode: Remote, with quarterly in-office collaboration (1-2 times per quarter); must be commutable to Palo Alto, CA or San Francisco, CA
- Salary: $242,634 - $499,541 USD base, plus equity
- Key skills: AI/ML infrastructure, Distributed systems, C++, Java, Rust, Generative AI, Recommender systems, Model training and fine-tuning, High-performance inference, Feature stores, Data orchestration, Technical strategy, Cross-functional leadership
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