Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Programmatic Ads

Segment (Twilio); Palo Alto, San Francisco (CA, CA); On-site; USD 222,716 - 389,753; Full time

Job summary

Pinterest is seeking a Staff ML Engineer in Palo Alto to develop core bidding and ranking systems that enhance ad ROI. This role involves designing algorithms for real-time bidding and owning end-to-end ML systems. Ideal candidates will have substantial experience in building ML systems and excellent technical leadership capabilities.

Applicants must be able to work in-office for collaboration three times per quarter. The salary range for this position is between $222,716 and $389,753, with equity eligibility.

Qualifications

• Industry experience building and shipping large-scale production ML systems in ads, search, recommendations, or related domains.
• Deep experience with control/optimization algorithms for bidding, pacing, allocation, or similar marketplace problems.
• Strength in probabilistic modeling and measurement.
• Proven Staff-level technical leadership as an IC.
• Demonstrated ability to use AI to improve workflows.
• Experience with AI coding assistants.
• Familiarity with LLM-powered productivity tools.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement algorithms for real-time bidding.
• Own end-to-end ML systems, including problem framing and metrics.
• Introduce and productionize new exchange signals.
• Partner with engineering teams to integrate models.
• Use AI for analysis, experimentation, and iteration.

Skills

Building large-scale production ML systems

Control/optimization algorithms

Probabilistic modeling

Technical leadership

AI-assisted workflow improvement

Experience with AI coding assistants

Familiarity with LLM-powered tools

Education

Degree in Computer Science

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.

Pinterest is building a new Programmatic Ads ML team to bring in exchange-sourced ads demand and supply. We’re looking for a Staff ML engineer to develop core bidding and ranking systems that help us optimally buy and sell inventory across exchanges, driving strong ROI for advertisers and growing a critical revenue stream for Pinterest.

What you’ll do:

• Design and implement algorithms for real-time bidding, ad scoring/ranking, inventory selection, and yield optimization across multiple exchanges.
• Own end-to-end ML systems: problem framing, metrics, data/feature design, model training, evaluation, and online experimentation.
• Introduce and productionize new exchange and supply signals (e.g., quality, conversions, identity, fraud, content understanding) to unlock incremental advertiser value.
• Partner closely with Ads Ranking & Bidding, Measurement, and Programmatic Engineering to integrate new models and objectives into the ads stack.
• Use AI to accelerate analysis, experimentation, and iteration (e.g., exploring model variants, automating path from learnings to launch) while applying strong judgment and vision.

What we’re looking for:

• Industry experience building and shipping large-scale production ML systems in ads, search, recommendations, or related domains.
• Deep experience with control/optimization algorithms for bidding, pacing, allocation, or similar marketplace problems.
• Strength in probabilistic modeling and measurement (e.g., quality/fraud signals, deep-learning engagement prediction) and making principled trade-offs between coverage, accuracy, and impact.
• Proven Staff-level technical leadership as an IC: driving technical direction and cross-team alignment without formal people management.
• Demonstrated ability to use AI to improve speed and quality of your workflow, with a strong track record of validating and stress-testing AI-assisted outputs.
• Degree in Computer Science, Statistics, or a related field.
• Experience with Cursor, Copilot, Codex, or similar AI coding assistants for development, debugging, testing, and refactoring.
• Familiarity with LLM-powered productivity tools for documentation search, experiment analysis, SQL/data exploration, and engineering workflow acceleration.

Relocation Statement

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

In-Office Requirement Statement

• We recognize that the ideal environment for work is situational and may differ across departments. What this looks like day-to-day can vary based on the needs of each organization or role.
• This role will need to be in the office for in-person collaboration 3 times per quarter and therefore needs to be in a commutable distance from one of the following offices: San Francisco, Palo Alto, Seattle.

#LI-SM4

At Pinterest we believe the workplace should be equitable, inclusive, and inspiring for every employee. 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.

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

US based applicants only

$222,716 — $389,753 USD

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 or 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.