Lead Principal Engineer, Indexing & Retrieval Platform

Pinterest; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 285,452 - 449,541; Full time

Job summary

Pinterest is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the technical strategy and execution for Indexing and Retrieval Infrastructure across Core, Ads, and Shopping. You will shape how fresh and cost-efficient candidates are generated for discovery experiences at scale, collaborating with engineering, product, ML, and infra leaders.

You will drive long-term vision, modernize architectures, and raise the bar for platform reliability and performance while mentoring senior engineers and applying AI to

Qualifications

• Experience building and evolving large-scale indexing, search, or retrieval systems.
• Ability to influence direction across multiple teams and drive platform decisions.
• Proven track record modernizing architectures and rolling out shared platforms.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term vision for indexing and retrieval across Core, Ads, and Shopping.
• Lead cross-org modernization of indexing architecture for real-time and incremental retrieval.
• Partner with engineering, product, ML, and infra leaders to align priorities and deliver platform capabilities.
• Set technical standards, conduct architecture reviews, and implement scalable designs.
• Build shared metrics, tuning surfaces, and debugging workflows for tradeoff analysis.
• Mentor senior engineers and promote high standards for reliability and safety.
• Leverage AI to accelerate analysis, prototyping, and documentation with rigorous verification.

Skills

Indexing & retrieval systems

Real-time architecture

Incremental retrieval

Technical leadership

Cross-team collaboration

AI-assisted engineering

System design & architecture reviews

Metrics & debugging workflows

Operational excellence

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in CS/Engineering

Job description

Pinterest is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the technical strategy and execution for Indexing and Retrieval Infrastructure across Core, Ads, and Shopping. You will shape how fresh and cost-efficient candidates are generated for discovery experiences at scale, collaborating with engineering, product, ML, and infra leaders.

You will drive long-term vision, modernize architectures, and raise the bar for platform reliability and performance while mentoring senior engineers and applying AI to