Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Pinterest is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer for Growth Content Science in San Francisco, working on complex models and production systems that support notification content ranking in a real-time environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead multiple technical sub-areas within Growth content science effectively.
• Drive Growth ML model improvements through an A/B test driven innovation loop, from ideation through production launches.
• Own the health of the ML ecosystem, including training pipelines, feature and serving infrastructure, evaluation frameworks, monitoring, and A/B test setup.
• Elevate technical excellence through mentorship, reviews, evaluations, documentation, and standard setting.
• Collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders to address large, cross-functional initiatives.
• Work closely with other engineering leaders to establish technical directions and roadmaps.
• Operate autonomously, take ownership in complex and evolving environments, and drive work effectively.
• Identify and apply relevant state-of-the-art techniques from recent research, or collaborate on novel research directions.
• Continuously optimize work by building and using cutting-edge AI tools.

Requirements

• Graduate degree in Computer Science or in a related field.
• Minimum of 8 years of experience in machine learning engineering, including hands-on experience building and shipping models for a large-scale, real-time, end-user production recommender system.
• Expertise in recommender modeling, including sequence modeling of user behavior with transformer architectures, DNN rankers, and generative and LLM-native recommenders.
• Experience building and operating high-QPS, latency-constrained ML systems, including training and serving infrastructure, with ownership of cost, latency, and reliability tradeoffs.
• Industry-grade software engineering experience that others use as an example, including conducting thorough code and design reviews.
• Understanding of content personalization and content quality as one problem, including why cold-start and low-signal users break standard rankers.
• Experience leading technical work across teams, making timely decisions on hard tradeoffs, and addressing situations where user experience or system health is at stake.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, particularly in cross-functional settings.
• Demonstrated experience using AI to improve speed and quality in applied research.
• Strong track record of publications and patents.

Work Location and Office Requirements

• This role is based in San Francisco, CA and is onsite.
• Pinterest notes that the ideal work environment can vary by department, and day-to-day expectations differ by organization or role.
• For this position, you will need to be in the office for in-person collaboration 1-2 times per quarter and the role can be situated anywhere in the country.

Relocation

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

Inclusion Commitment

• Pinterest is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions based on merit.
• All qualified applicants 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, protected veteran status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, or other unlawful considerations.
• Qualified applicants are considered regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.
• If you require a medical or religious accommodation during the job application process, complete the provided form for support.

Additional Role Details

• Experience level: 8+ years
• Salary range: USD 189,308 - 389,753 per year