Principal Engineer, AI-Driven Indexing & Retrieval

Pinterest Engineering; San Francisco, Palo Alto, Seattle (CA, CA, WA); On-site; USD 285,000 - 450,000; Full time

Job summary

Pinterest is seeking a Principal Engineer to shape the technical strategy for Indexing & Retrieval Infrastructure across Core, Ads, and Shopping. You will drive architecture modernization, mentor engineers, and partner with leaders to deliver high-scale, high-quality candidate generation across discovery surfaces.

You will leverage AI to accelerate analysis, design exploration, and platform insights, while maintaining strong focus on correctness, privacy, and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• Experience with large-scale indexing, search, or retrieval systems.
• Leadership across multiple teams/organizations with influence on platform decisions.
• Proven track record modernizing architectures and rolling out shared platforms.
• Systems thinking connecting design to product quality and outcomes.
• Excellent communication for senior technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience using AI to improve speed and quality in engineering workflows.
• Strong integrity and care with production data and privacy.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term technical vision for indexing and retrieval infrastructure across Core, Ads, and Shopping.
• Lead cross-org initiatives to modernize indexing architecture and support high-scale retrieval systems.
• Partner with engineering, product, ML, and infrastructure leaders to align priorities and deliver platform capabilities.
• Guide system design, architecture reviews, and complex platform changes spanning ingestion, indexing, retrieval, and evaluation.
• Build shared platform capabilities such as metrics, tuning surfaces, and debugging workflows.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders to raise engineering judgment and operational excellence.
• Use AI to accelerate analysis, prototyping, and design exploration while ensuring correctness and reliability.
• Use AI to summarize investigations, draft design artifacts, and synthesize platform insights.

Skills

Large-scale indexing

Technical leadership

Cross-org collaboration

AI in engineering workflows

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science or related field

Job description

Pinterest is seeking a Principal Engineer to shape the technical strategy for Indexing & Retrieval Infrastructure across Core, Ads, and Shopping. You will drive architecture modernization, mentor engineers, and partner with leaders to deliver high-scale, high-quality candidate generation across discovery surfaces.

You will leverage AI to accelerate analysis, design exploration, and platform insights, while maintaining strong focus on correctness, privacy, and operational excellence.