Sr. Technical Program Manager, Personalization

Pinterest; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 123,684 - 254,644; Full time

Job summary

Pinterest is seeking a Senior Technical Program Manager, Personalization in San Francisco. In this role, you will own and drive personalization programs across various product surfaces, ensuring a tailored experience for users.

With over 5 years in technical program management and experience in AI or ML-driven systems, you will develop actionable roadmaps and lead cross-functional collaboration. The role requires excellent communication skills and a data-driven mindset. Salary range is $123,684 - $254,644.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience managing complex technical programs.
• Experience with AI and ML systems in consumer products.
• Strong organizational skills and program management fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Own a portfolio of personalization programs.
• Drive cross-surface execution for personalization improvements.
• Communicate complex work simply to stakeholders.

Skills

Technical Program Management

Machine Learning

Data-Driven Decision Making

Communication Skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field

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.

At Pinterest, AI isn’t just a feature, it’s a powerful partner that augments our creativity and amplifies our impact, and we’re looking for candidates who are excited to be a part of that. To get a complete picture of your experience and abilities, we’ll explore your foundational skills and how you collaborate with AI.

Through our interview process, what matters most is that you can always explain your approach, showing us not just what you know, but how you think. You can read more about our AI interview philosophy and how we use AI in our recruiting process here.

The Team

Pinterest Technical Program Managers are proactive owners with deep program craft and enough technical fluency to be trusted partners to Product, Engineering, and Data Science.

As a Personalization TPM, you’ll sit at the heart of our Experience & Personalization (P13N) organization, working across Relevance/ML, product surfaces (Homefeed, Explore, Boards, Shopping), and platform teams. Your mandate is to make Pinterest feel uniquely tailored to every Pinner by driving the programs that power our personalization systems and experiences.

What you’ll do

As the Senior Technical Program Manager, Personalization, you will:

• Own a portfolio of personalization programs that span recommendation platforms, ranking and optimization strategies, and new anticipatory experiences (e.g., unified landing pages, intelligent/AI-generated boards), with clear goals, milestones, and success metrics.
• Drive cross-surface execution so that personalization improvements can scale efficiently across multiple experiences (e.g., Homefeed, Explore, SEO landing pages, board and shopping surfaces), working closely with product and engineering owners in each area.
• Partner with Relevance and Data Science to ensure our ranking and modeling work prioritizes long-term value and revisitation (not just short-term clicks), and that experiment learnings systematically inform future roadmap and investment decisions.
• Design and run the operating model for personalization—creating cadences, dashboards, and decision forums that give leaders and teams a clear view of program health, risks, dependencies, and tradeoffs across the personalization portfolio.
• Align stakeholders across organizations (Relevance/ML, product surfaces, infra, curation, growth) when there are competing priorities or ambiguous ownership, and drive crisp, data‑backed decisions that keep the personalization roadmap moving.
• Communicate complex work simply, turning deeply technical modeling and platform efforts into clear narratives about impact on Pinners (discovery quality, relevance, anticipatory experiences) and on the business (engagement, retention, revisitation).
• Use GenAI as a default PgM tool—starting from AI‑assisted drafts for core artifacts (charters, plans, status, decision memos) and redesigning high‑toil PgM workflows (status synthesis, RAID tracking, intake triage) into AI‑first mechanisms where it’s safe and effective to do so.
• Prototype lightweight AI‑assisted helpers (e.g., scripts, dashboards, workflow tools) with AI coding assistants to make it easier to understand personalization experiments, surface‑level performance, and program health—while adhering to Pinterest’s AI governance and safety‑by‑design expectations.

What we’re looking for

• 5+ years of experience as a Technical Program Manager (or similar role) driving complex, cross‑functional technical programs.
• Experience working with personalization, recommendations, relevance, or similar ML/AI‑driven systems in consumer products (e.g., feeds, search, ranking, discovery).
• Demonstrated ability to take ambiguous personalization problem spaces (e.g., “make the experience more anticipatory,” “optimize for long‑term value”) and turn them into clear, actionable roadmaps and execution plans.
• Strong program management fundamentals: you are highly organized, comfortable managing multiple complex workstreams, and skilled at building governance, planning, and communication structures that scale.
• Data‑driven decision‑maker who is comfortable partnering with Data Science on experiment design, interpreting results, and using metrics (engagement, retention, revisitation, latency) to guide priorities and tradeoffs.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a track record of explaining nuanced, technical topics to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders, including senior leadership.
• Proven ability to influence and align cross‑functional partners in situations with competing priorities or unclear ownership, especially across product surfaces and platform/ML teams.
• Experience creating or evolving processes and playbooks that improve how teams plan, execute, and review personalization work at scale.
• AI‑first execution mindset and workflow design fluency—comfortable using GenAI to accelerate TPM work, “vibe‑coding” small helpers with AI coding assistants, and operating within AI governance and safety‑by‑design expectations.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as computer science, computer and information technology, or equivalent experience.

Relocation Statement

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

In‑Office Requirement Statement

• We let the type of work you do guide the collaboration style. That means we're not always working in an office, but we continue to gather for key moments of collaboration and connection.
• This role will need to be in the office for in‑person collaboration 1‑2 times/quarter and therefore can be situated anywhere in the country.

US based applicants only

In an effort to provide greater transparency, we are sharing the base salary range for this position. The position is also eligible for equity. Final salary is based on a number of factors including location, travel, relevant prior experience, or particular skills and expertise.

$123,684 - $254,644 USD

Information regarding the culture at Pinterest and benefits available for this position can be found here.

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.