Staff Technical Program Manager, Advanced Technology Group

Pinterest; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 146,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Pinterest is seeking a Staff Technical Program Manager for the Advanced Technology Group to lead cross-functional ML/AI programs and scale engineering efforts across research, platform, and product teams.

You will collaborate with senior leaders to translate AI strategy into actionable roadmaps, staffing, and milestones, while overseeing release management, capacity planning, and governance across organizations. The role emphasizes data-driven decision making and executive communication.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in technical program management or related roles.
• Deep technical understanding of ML/AI systems (training, evaluation, model serving, GPU capacity).
• Experience with LLM/multimodal model adoption and migration between providers.
• Ability to partner with VP and Director-level leaders in Product and Engineering and influence strategy and prioritization.
• Strong written and verbal communication for executive audiences.
• Experience designing planning processes and governance across multiple organizations.
• Strong data-driven decision making with SQL and dashboards.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex, multi-workstream programs across ML research, platform engineering, infrastructure, safety/compliance, and product, aligned under one roadmap, metrics, and governance.
• Partner with VPs of Product and Engineering to translate strategy into workstreams, staffing, milestones, and decisions.
• Drive the path from research to production: model development, evaluation, release management, serving capacity, adoption by product teams.
• Define and track metrics and guardrails (quality, cost, reliability, adoption, cycle time) and use them to drive decisions.
• Run technical design and decision forums; identify risks and tradeoffs early and align senior leaders on a path forward.
• Build operating mechanisms that scale across teams working at different paces.
• Use AI tools to automate tracking, reporting, and program insights.
• Communicate status, risks, and decisions to executives and cross-functional partners.

Skills

SQL

Dashboards

Analytical thinking

Communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in a technical field

Tools

LLM evaluation frameworks

Model deployment tools

GPU tooling

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 and 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.

Staff Technical Program Manager, Advanced Technology Group

Pinterest Technical Program Managers deliver critical and strategic outcomes by directing and scaling engineering effort across organizational and functional boundaries.

Pinterest is looking for a highly technical, experienced Staff TPM to join the Advanced Technology Group (ATG), a research-driven engineering organization advancing Pinterest’s ML/AI capabilities. You’ll partner directly with senior product and engineering leaders to turn ambitious AI strategy into shipped, reliable, and widely adopted capabilities. This is a high-visibility role spanning research, ML platform, infrastructure, safety and product teams.

What you’ll do:

• Lead complex, multi-workstream programs across ML research, platform engineering, infrastructure, safety/compliance, and product, aligned under one roadmap, metrics, and governance.
• Partner closely with the VPs of Product and Engineering to translate strategy into workstreams, staffing, milestones, and clear decision-making.
• Drive the path from research to production: model development, evaluation, release management, serving capacity, and adoption by product teams.
• Define and track metrics and guardrails (quality, cost, reliability, adoption, cycle time) and use them to drive decisions.
• Run technical design and decision forums; identify risks and tradeoffs early and align senior leaders on a path forward.
• Build operating mechanisms (planning, reviews, intake, launch readiness, post-mortems) that scale across teams working at different paces.
• Use AI tooling to automate tracking, reporting, and program insights.
• Communicate status, risks, and decisions to executives and cross-functional partners, tailoring technical depth to the audience.

What we’re looking for:

• Minimum 8 years in technical program management, engineering, or related roles, with a track record of leading org-level, multi-team ML/AI or platform programs.
• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field or equivalent practical experience.
• Deep technical understanding of ML/AI systems (training and post-training, evaluation, model serving, GPU capacity, release management) and platform engineering. You can read design docs and challenge assumptions.
• Experience with LLM/multimodal model adoption, such as adapting open-source models, evaluation frameworks, and migrating workloads between model providers, is a strong plus.
• Proven ability to partner with VP and Director-level leaders in Product and Engineering and influence strategy and prioritization.
• Experience designing planning processes and governance (annual and multi-half planning) across several organizations.
• Strong analytical skills: SQL, dashboards, and using data from experiments and evaluations to drive decisions.
• Comfort with high ambiguity, rapidly changing technology, and cross-functional work with Legal, Privacy, and Safety partners.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, including nuanced technical concepts for executive audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to build and scale processes, and to use AI tools to automate program management.

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/quarter and therefore can be situated anywhere in the country.

Relocation Statement:

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

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

$145,747 — $300,067 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.