Principal Software Engineer, Ads Infrastructure

Pinterest; California, San Francisco (MO, CA); On-site; USD 274,000 - 481,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company as a Principal Software Engineer, where you will have the opportunity to innovate and develop large-scale systems that power one of the fastest-growing online advertising platforms. In this dynamic role, you will re-architect critical infrastructure, modernize machine learning ecosystems, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to enhance performance and scalability. This position offers a unique chance to leverage your expertise in distributed systems and programming languages like Java, C++, and Python to significantly impact the company's growth and success. If you are passionate about technology and eager to drive change, this role is perfect for you.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in distributed systems and systems programming.
• Proficiency in Java, C++, or Python with a focus on high-performance infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Re-architect core catalog and ads indexing infrastructure for better performance.
• Modernize the ML ecosystem for Pinterest Ads with a unified stack.

Skills

Java

C++

Python

Distributed Systems

Transactional Datastores

Systems Programming

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Higher Degree in Related Field

Tools

MySQL

TiDB

Flink

HNSW

Pytorch

Spark

Iceberg

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, celebrate each other's unique experiences, and embrace the flexibility to do your best work. Creating a career you love? It's possible.

Principal Software Engineer, Ads Infrastructure

Pinterest is one of the fastest-growing online advertising platforms, and our continued success depends on rapidly scaling our core revenue-generating systems. Specifically, we need to scale our campaign management, ad delivery, and machine learning platforms by 10X, while enabling developers inside Pinterest and external advertisers to build and iterate rapidly on new features. We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to initiate, design, and build the next-gen version of the key infrastructure components in our monetization ecosystem, such as modernizing our end-to-end ML platform serving over hundreds of use cases making billions of predictions per second, and redesigning our catalog ingestion and ads delivery systems to become a leading advertising platform worldwide. This role offers the opportunity to leverage deep infrastructure knowledge to redesign large-scale systems and collaborate with experienced engineers and cross-functional partners to impact our business's topline and bottomline.

What you'll do:

1. Re-architect core catalog, ads indexing, and serving infrastructure to enhance scalability, freshness, performance, and reliability using technologies like MySQL, TiDB, Flink, and HNSW.
2. Modernize the ML ecosystem for Pinterest Ads, replacing outdated stacks with a unified, modern, and privacy-first ML stack including Pytorch, Spark, Iceberg, and GPU-based serving.
3. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define problems and drive solutions.
4. Work with a strong team of engineers, providing technical guidance and mentorship.

What we're looking for:

1. BS or higher degree in Computer Science or related field.
2. 10+ years of relevant industry experience with distributed systems, transactional datastores, and systems programming.
3. Experience building and owning large-scale, high-performance infrastructure for ads, recommendation, search, or similar consumer-facing applications.
4. Experience solving end-user problems and designing solutions to improve productivity.
5. Proficiency in Java, C++, or Python.

Relocation Statement:

This position is not eligible for relocation assistance. Visit our PinFlex page to learn more about our working model.

Additional Information:

At Pinterest, we believe the workplace should be equitable, inclusive, and inspiring for every employee. We are sharing the salary range for transparency: $274,473—$480,328 USD. The position is also eligible for equity. Final salary depends on location, experience, and skills.

Information about Pinterest's culture and benefits can be found here.

US-based applicants only.

Our Commitment to Inclusion:

Pinterest is an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants regardless of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or other protected characteristics. If you require a medical or religious accommodation during the application process, please complete this form.