Staff Software Engineer, Service Communications

Pinterest; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 177,000 - 365,000; Full time

Job summary

Pinterest seeks a Staff Engineer to lead the Service Communications team, shaping strategy across identity, traffic optimization, and platform scaling. You’ll design and deploy Envoy-based service mesh features, drive secure mTLS adoption, and collaborate with cross‑functional teams to improve reliability at scale.

You will maintain Java, Python, and C++ libraries, mentor engineers, and help accelerate engineering workflows using AI while ensuring accuracy and quality.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in infrastructure or platform engineering for distributed systems.
• Hands-on with service mesh tech such as Envoy or Istio and L7 proxying.
• Proficient in Java, Python and C++ with experience building internal libraries.
• Strong knowledge of mTLS and identity management via SPIFFE/SPIRE.
• Experience designing scalable distributed systems at large scale.
• Experience driving platform capability adoption across teams.
• Experience using AI to accelerate engineering workflows with quality checks.

Responsibilities

• Architect and deploy advanced service mesh features with Envoy-based mesh.
• Lead organization-wide adoption of service identity and mTLS.
• Design locality-aware routing and other traffic optimization primitives.
• Maintain and modernize Java, Python, and C++ libraries for developers.
• Collaborate with service owners to refine infrastructure requirements.
• Partner on multi-region/multi-cloud strategies for robust service communication.
• Use AI to accelerate analysis and iteration with validation of results.
• Join oncall rotation to improve reliability and incident response.

Skills

Distributed systems

Service mesh (Envoy/Istio)

Java

Python

C++

Security/mTLS/SPIFFE

AI in engineering workflows

Education

Bachelor’s/Master’s in Computer Science or related

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.

Intro: The Service Communications team manages the foundational high-layer networking systems ensuring reliable, secure, and performant service-to-service interactions at Pinterest. Our Envoy-based mesh and multi-language frameworks provide critical primitives for hundreds of internal services, and we are looking for a Staff Engineer to lead technical strategy across identity, traffic optimization, and platform scaling.

What you’ll do:

• Architect and deploy advanced service mesh features, focusing on service discovery, traffic shaping, and deep observability using Envoy proxy.

• Lead the organization-wide adoption of service identity and mTLS to satisfy critical AAA security requirements for service-to-service paths.

• Design traffic optimization primitives like locality-aware routing to materially reduce data transfer costs for high-volume service traffic.

• Maintain and modernize service framework libraries in Java, Python, and C++, enhancing the developer experience and operational reliability.

• Collaborate with service owners across the company to drive adoption and refine infrastructure requirements for emerging feature needs.

• Partner with infrastructure peers on multi-region and multi-cloud strategies that rely on robust service communication primitives.

• Use AI to accelerate analysis and iteration, while applying judgment and verification to ensure correctness and quality.

• Join the team oncall rotation to manage incident response, perform post-mortems, and drive long-term reliability improvements.

What we’re looking for:

• 6+ years of infrastructure or platform engineering experience, specifically within distributed systems or RPC framework development.

• Deep technical expertise in service mesh technologies such as Envoy or Istio, including hands‑on experience with L7 proxying.

• Proficiency across multiple languages (Java, Python, C++) and a track record of building internal libraries or developer tools.

• Strong understanding of service security, including mTLS adoption and identity management via SPIFFE/SPIRE.

• Proven ability to design highly available and efficient distributed systems at massive scale.

• Demonstrated experience driving the adoption of complex platform capabilities across diverse cross-functional engineering teams.

• Demonstrated experience using AI to accelerate engineering workflows, with a clear approach to validating accuracy and quality.

• Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in Computer Science, a related field, 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 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 1-2 times every 6-months and therefore can be situated anywhere in the country.

#LI-REMOTE

#LI-KBF

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

$177,185—$364,795 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, 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.