Sr. Software Engineer, Backend

Pinterest; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Pinterest is looking for a Senior Full-Stack and Backend Engineer to join our Monetization and Core engineering teams. You will work closely with product managers and designers to build robust features and frameworks for a large user base.

The ideal candidate will have at least 5 years of backend development experience. Strong skills in collaboration and programming languages such as Python, Java, and C++ are required. This role involves working in the office for collaboration a few times a year.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of industry backend development experience, building consumer or business facing products.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills are essential.
• Experience leading projects and mentoring others.

Responsibilities

• Build out the backend for Pinner-facing features.
• Contribute to the product development process from ideation to release.
• Design, develop, and operate large-scale distributed systems.

Skills

Backend development experience

Proficiency in RESTful API

Collaboration skills

Python programming

Experience with distributed systems

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science

Tools

Java

C++

Go

Job description

Senior Full-Stack and Backend Engineer

We are looking for inquisitive, well‑rounded senior full‑stack and backend engineers to join our Monetization and Core engineering teams. Working closely with product managers, designers, and backend engineers, you’ll play an important role in enabling the newest technologies and experiences. You will build robust frameworks and features, empower developers and Pinners alike, and find creative solutions to thought‑provoking problems. You'll have the opportunity to create and drive new initiatives from inception to design, implementation, and release.

What you’ll do

• Build out the backend for Pinner-facing features to power the future of inspiration on Pinterest
• Contribute to and lead each step of the product development process, from ideation to implementation to release; from rapidly prototyping, running A/B tests, to architecting and building solutions that can scale to support millions of users
• Partner with design, product, and backend teams to build end-to-end functionality
• Put on your Pinner hat to suggest new product ideas and features
• Employ automated testing to build features with a high degree of technical quality, taking responsibility for the components and features you develop
• Grow as an engineer by working with world‑class peers on varied and high impact projects
• Design, develop, and operate large scale, distributed systems and networks
• Work with Engineering customers to understand new requirements and address them in a scalable and efficient manner
• Actively work to improve the developer process and experience in all phases from coding to operation
• Leverage AI to seek faster execution (i.e. draft, prototype, outline) and explore alternative options (i.e. iterate, compare approaches)
• Leverage AI to synthesize information (summarize, distill themes) and automate repeatable tasks (documentation, reporting, QA checks)

What we’re looking for

• 5+ years of industry backend development experience, building consumer or business facing products
• Proficiency in common backend tech stacks for RESTful API, online service, storage, caching and data processing
• Experience in following best practices in writing reliable and maintainable code that may be used by many other engineers
• Ability to keep up‑date with new technologies to understand what should be incorporated
• Strong collaboration and communication skills
• Experience leading or owning projects, mentoring others, or driving technical thought leadership
• Experience building & operating large scale distributed systems and/or networks. Bonus points if you enjoy deploying and operating large scale workloads on a public cloud footprint
• Experience in Python, Java, C++, or Go or another language and a willingness to learn
• Demonstrated ability to use AI to improve speed and quality in your day‑to‑day workflow for relevant outputs.
• Strong track record of critical evaluation and verification of AI‑assisted work (e.g., testing, source‑checking, data validation, peer review).
• High integrity and ownership: you protect sensitive data, avoid over‑reliance on AI, and remain accountable for final decisions and deliverables.
• Bonus points if you have experience with any of the following (needs vary from team to team): Developer Enablement/Productivity or Internal Tooling, CI/CD, Generative AI/LLMs, Spark/Flink/Big Data technologies, Data Science/Analytics, Building Products or Internal Tools from Scratch
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, or equivalent experience

This job posting is for an open vacancy. Please note that the company utilizes artificial intelligence to screen applicants for the positions.

This role will need to be in the office for in‑person collaboration 1‑2 times every 6‑months and therefore can be situated anywhere in Ontario.

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

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 complete this form for support.

By submitting this application, I certify that all information submitted in my application and throughout the hiring process is true, accurate, and complete to the best of my knowledge. I understand that any false statement, omission, or misrepresentation may disqualify me from employment consideration or result in termination if discovered after hire.