Principal Engineer, Large-Scale Indexing & Retrieval

Gohyred; United States; Hybrid; USD 243,000 - 500,000; Full time

Job summary

Pinterest is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the technical strategy for indexing and retrieval infrastructure across Core, Ads, and Shopping. This role drives modernization and diverse collaborations to improve freshness, quality, and cost efficiency, while using AI to accelerate design and iteration.

The candidate will mentor engineers, set architectural direction, and partner with product and ML teams to deliver scalable platform capabilities for high-scale discovery experiences.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience with large-scale indexing, search, or retrieval systems.
• Strong cross-team leadership across multiple organizations.
• History of modernization efforts at scale.
• Exceptional systems thinking linking platform design to ML and business outcomes.
• Excellent communication for senior and non-technical audiences.
• Experience using AI to accelerate engineering workflows.
• Proven ability to validate AI-assisted work with solid judgment.
• High integrity with data privacy and safety considerations.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in CS or related field.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term technical vision for indexing and retrieval infrastructure.
• Lead cross-org initiatives to modernize indexing architecture across Core, Ads, and Shopping.
• Partner with engineering, product, ML, and infra leaders to align priorities and deliver platform capabilities.
• Guide system design, architecture reviews, and execution on complex platform changes.
• Build shared capabilities like metrics, tuning surfaces, and debugging workflows.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders for strong engineering judgment.
• Use AI to accelerate analysis, prototyping, and design exploration.
• Ensure correctness, reliability, and quality in AI-assisted work.

Skills

Large-scale indexing

Technical leadership

Cross-team collaboration

AI in engineering

System design

Education

Bachelor/Master in CS or related

Job description

Pinterest is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the technical strategy for indexing and retrieval infrastructure across Core, Ads, and Shopping. This role drives modernization and diverse collaborations to improve freshness, quality, and cost efficiency, while using AI to accelerate design and iteration.

The candidate will mentor engineers, set architectural direction, and partner with product and ML teams to deliver scalable platform capabilities for high-scale discovery experiences.