Manager II, Engineering, Ads Serving Infrastructure

Pinterest; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 208,000 - 365,000; Full time

Job summary

Pinterest is looking for an Engineering Manager to lead the Ads Serving Platform team, delivering relevant ads reliably and at scale across Pinterest surfaces. You will hire and mentor engineers, set technical strategy for a high-throughput, low-latency backend, and drive reliability and cost efficiency across the ad lifecycle.

You will collaborate with Ads and Core engineering teams to enable faster product iteration with robust tooling and observability.

Qualifications

• Experience leading software engineering teams and building high-performance backend or infrastructure platforms.
• Proven ability to hire, manage performance, and develop engineers in inclusive environments.
• Expertise in distributed systems, online serving, low-latency services, or infrastructure platforms.
• Ability to balance latency, reliability, scalability, cost, and developer experience.
• Strong communication and collaboration with technical and cross-functional partners.
• Proficiency in Java, C++, Go, or Python.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a team of engineers; manage hiring, performance, and career development.
• Lead engineering strategy for high-throughput, low-latency ad serving platform.
• Ensure platform reliability, availability, and operational excellence across the ad lifecycle.
• Improve infrastructure performance, cost efficiency, and compliance controls.
• Enhance developer productivity and platform flexibility for product and ML integrations.
• Leverage AI to accelerate analysis, debugging, and design exploration with rigorous validation.
• Raise quality through design/code reviews and documentation.
• Mentor engineers and scale technical leadership.

Skills

Team leadership

Hiring & career development

Distributed systems

Low-latency backend

Communication

Java

C++

Go

Python

AI in engineering

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Observability

Production debugging

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 and celebrate each other's unique experiences and embrace theflexibility 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.

Pinterest is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead the Ads Serving Platform team. The Ads Serving Manager leads the engineering team and platform responsible for delivering relevant ads reliably, efficiently, and at scale across Pinterest surfaces. The Ads Serving Platform owns the end-to-end ad-request lifecycle and focuses on reliability, performance, compliance, developer productivity, and cost efficiency.

You will work across Ads and Core engineering teams to define durable platform capabilities, modernize frameworks, and unlock faster product iteration with high confidence in production.

What you'll do:

• Build and lead a team of high-caliber software engineers. You'll be responsible for hiring, performance management, career development, and fostering an inclusive, high-output team culture.
• Lead engineering team and technical strategy for high-throughput, low-latency ad serving platform.
• Ensure platform reliability, high availability, and operational excellence across the end-to-end ad-request lifecycle.
• Drive infrastructure performance, cost efficiency, and compliance controls while supporting business growth.
• Improve developer productivity and platform flexibility for product and ML feature integrations.
• Use AI to accelerate analysis, debugging, design exploration, and iteration while applying sound engineering judgment and validation.
• Raise the quality bar through design reviews, code reviews, documentation, and operational excellence.
• Mentor engineers and scale technical leadership across the organization.

What we're looking for:

• Proven experience managing software engineering teams and building high-performance backend or infrastructure platforms.
• Demonstrated success in hiring, performance management, career development, and fostering inclusive team environments.
• Strong expertise in distributed systems, online serving, low-latency services, or infrastructure platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to make sound tradeoffs across latency, reliability, scalability, cost, and developer experience.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills with technical and cross‑functional partners.
• Proficiency in one or more programming languages such as Java, C++, Go, or Python.
• Track record of meeting strict serving latency SLAs, operational targets, and optimizing cost-per-impression at scale.
• Demonstrated ability to use AI to improve the speed and quality of day-to-day engineering workflows, with a rigorous approach to testing, validation, and responsible use.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent experience.
• Preferred qualifications:
  • Experience with ads delivery, recommendation or search serving, retrieval, ranking, or experimentation systems.
  • Experience with serving‑framework migrations, platform consolidation, or developer tooling.
  • Experience with observability, production debugging, traffic management, or incident response.

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 collaboration1-2 times per week and therefore needs to be in a commutable distance from one of the following offices: Palo Alto OR SF.

At Pinterest we believe the workplace should be equitable, inclusive, and inspiring for every employee. 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.

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

US based applicants only

$208,454 — $364,795 USD

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.