Principal Engineer, AI-Driven Indexing & Retrieval Platform

San Francisco (CA)

Hybrid

USD 285,000 - 450,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

Pinterest is seeking a Principal Engineer to drive the technical strategy for Indexing & Retrieval Infrastructure across Core, Ads, and Shopping. You will shape how fresh, relevant and cost-efficient candidates are generated for Pinterest's discovery experiences at scale.

You will lead modernization efforts, mentor senior engineers, and partner with cross-functional leaders to deliver high-impact platform capabilities that improve retrieval performance and reliability.

Qualifications

Deep expertise in indexing, search, or retrieval systems at scale.
Experience leading multi-team modernization and platform convergence.
Strong ability to connect platform design with product quality and ML needs.
Excellent communication, influencing stakeholders and driving decisions.

Responsibilities

Define the long-term technical vision for indexing and retrieval across Core, Ads, and Shopping.
Lead cross-org initiatives to modernize architecture and support high-scale candidate generation.
Partner with engineering, product, ML, and infra leaders to deliver shared platform capabilities.
Guide system design reviews and execution across ingestion, indexing, retrieval, and quality evaluation.
Build common metrics, tuning surfaces, and debugging workflows for tradeoff management.
Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders, promoting operational excellence.