Data Scientist II, ML Infrastructure

Pinterest; United States; On-site; USD 114,297 - 235,319; Full time

Job summary

Pinterest is seeking a Data & Applied Scientist to advance ML measurement, feature understanding, and causal inference at scale. You will design production ML systems, establish rigorous standards, and collaborate cross-functionally to deliver durable platform capabilities across the ML org.

The role focuses on productionizing research workflows, building self-serve tooling, and partnering with ML engineers and product teams to improve model quality and business outcomes.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of hands-on experience as an applied scientist, ML engineer, research scientist or software engineer with ML production experience.
• Strong Python skills; experience with PyTorch or equivalent DL frameworks; familiarity with distributed compute (Spark, Ray).
• Enthusiasm for building tools and platforms that multiply the impact of an entire ML organization; not just solving one-off problems.
• Deep ML theory knowledge with strong fundamentals for reasoning about ML models from first principles.
• Proficiency in software development best practices including version control, code review, and reproducible ML pipelines.
• Experience with workflow management tools (Airflow, Prefect, Jenkins, or similar) for reliable ML pipeline orchestration.
• Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Translate research-grade DS workflows into production ML pipelines using Airflow, WandB & Ray.
• Apply and productionize causal inference methods to address high-stakes measurement questions at scale.
• Partner with ML engineers and product teams to identify opportunities for tooling, metrics, and measurement methods.
• Leverage metadata and signals to build data-driven frameworks improving platform efficiency.
• Design and build centralized ML platform tooling for feature and model creation, evaluation and trust.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

Ray

Airflow

WandB

Distributed compute

Jenkins

Prefect

Education

Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in CS or equivalent

Tools

Airflow

WandB

Ray

Jenkins

Prefect

Job description

About Pinterest:

Millions of people around the world come to our platform to find creative ideas, dream about new possibilities and plan for memories that will last a lifetime. At Pinterest we’re on a mission to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love, and that starts with the people behind the product.

Discover a career where you ignite innovation for millions, transform passion into growth opportunities, celebrate each other's unique experiences and embrace the flexibility to do your best work. Creating a career you love? It's Possible.

At Pinterest, AI isn’t just a feature, it’s a powerful partner that augments our creativity and amplifies our impact, and we’re looking for candidates who are excited to be a part of that. To get a complete picture of your experience and abilities, we’ll explore your foundational skills and how you collaborate with AI.

Through our interview process, what matters most is that you can always explain your approach, showing us not just what you know, but how you think. You can read more about our AI interview philosophy and how we use AI in our recruiting process here.

This role focuses on advancing the science and systems behind ML measurement, feature understanding, and causal inference at scale. The work spans areas such as production feature importance platforms, observational causal estimation in Pytorch, large-scale proxy metric development, and data-driven approaches to ML infrastructure efficiency. We’re looking for an enthusiastic individual contributor to perform high-impact technical work across this space. This person will drive foundational innovations, own the end-to-end design of production ML systems, establish rigorous methodological standards, and partner cross-functionally to turn successful research into durable platform capabilities that raise the ceiling for the entire ML organization.

What you’ll do:

We are looking for an experienced and highly capable Data & Applied Scientist to help us drive step function improvements in our ML capabilities at Pinterest.

In this role, you will:

• Translate research-grade DS workflows (e.g., proxy metrics, staleness models) into production ML pipelines using Airflow, WandB & Ray while establishing reusable patterns for other teams.
• Apply and productionize causal inference methods using the production ML stack (propensity scoring, IPW, TMLE) to address high-stakes measurement questions beyond experimental capabilities. Build self-serve tooling to empower non-experts to derive rigorous causal insights at scale.
• Partner with ML engineers and product teams to identify opportunities for improved tooling, metrics, and measurement methods, unlocking step-change improvements in model quality and business outcomes.
• Leverage Pinterest’s rich metadata and engagement signals to build data-driven frameworks, from feature importance to content deindexing, that improve platform efficiency and speed.
• Design and build centralized ML platform tooling to improve feature and model creation, evaluation, and trust, including production systems that operate daily at scale across all models.

What we’re looking for:

• 2+ years of hands-on experience as an applied scientist, ML engineer, research scientist or software engineer, with significant ML production experience.
• Strong Python skills; experience with PyTorch or equivalent deep learning frameworks; familiarity with distributed compute (Spark, Ray). Ray specifically is a strong plus.
• Enthusiasm for building tools and platforms that multiply the impact of an entire ML organization; not just solving one-off problems.
• Deep ML theory knowledge with extremely strong fundamentals that can help us reason about ML models from first principles.
• Proficiency in software development best practices including version control, code review, and reproducible ML pipelines.
• Experience with workflow management tools (Airflow, Prefect, Jenkins, or similar) for reliable ML pipeline orchestration.
• Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, or equivalent experience.

Relocation Statement:

This position is not eligible for relocation assistance. Visit our PinFlex page to learn more about our working model.

In-Office Requirement Statement:

We recognize that the ideal environment for work is situational and may differ across departments. What this looks like day-to-day can vary based on the needs of each organization or role.

This role will need to be in the office for in-person collaboration 3-5 times/quarter and therefore can be situated anywhere in the country.

Our Commitment to Inclusion:

Pinterest is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions on the basis of merit. We want to have the best qualified people in every job. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, status as a protected veteran, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information or characteristics (or those of a family member) or any other consideration made unlawful by applicable federal, state or local laws. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you require a medical or religious accommodation during the job application process, please completethis form for support.

In an effort to provide greater transparency, we are sharing the base salary range for this position. The position is also eligible for equity. Final salary is based on a number of factors including location, travel, relevant prior experience, or particular skills and expertise.

$114,297 — $235,319 USD

US based applicants only

Information regarding the culture at Pinterest and benefits available for this position can be found here.