Director, Machine Learning Engineering – Content & User Understanding
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.
We’re looking for a Director of Machine Learning to lead the Content and User Understanding team at Pinterest. This leader will define the long-term ML / AI vision, technical strategy and drive execution for building the company-wide content and user understanding ML models and systems that power Pinterest’s critical product surfaces across homefeed, related, search, shopping, growth and ads.
What You’ll Do
Lead ML Strategy and Innovation for Foundational Content and User Understanding
Set the multi-year vision, technical strategy, and investment roadmap for content and user understanding ML models and systems.
Drive innovation of cutting-edge AI approaches, including large scale sequence modeling, VLM and LLM.
Lead Execution and Deployment Across Pinterest to Deliver Topline Impact
Ensure the foundational content and user understanding models and systems are effective and scalable to power downstream applications across Pinterest surfaces: homefeed, related, search, shopping, growth and ads.
Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Data Science leaders in partner teams to translate foundational ML techniques into significant business impact.
Form strong collaboration across teams and build trust.
Build and Scale a World-Class ML Organization
Manage, hire, and develop a team of high-performing managers and ML / Backend engineers, fostering a culture of innovation, technical excellence, rigor, and impact.
Drive ML Influence Across Pinterest
Act as the primary technical spokesperson for Content and User Understanding to executive leadership and external partners.
Represent the team's needs and priorities in company-wide planning and resource allocation to ensure long-term, strategic ML investment.
What We’re Looking For
12+ years of professional experience as a technical leader, including 5+ years in people leadership roles (managing managers and senior ICs).
Deep ML expertise: building and operating large-scale ML systems in recommendation, ads or search.
Expertise in large scale deep learning, VLM and LLM approaches.
Track record to set long term technical vision and lead teams to deliver top line business impacts.
Seasoned People Leader: Proven success leading complex ML organizations, managing managers, and exceptional communication and influence skills to drive close collaboration with multiple partner teams.
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 every 6 months and therefore can be situated anywhere in the country.
Relocation Statement
This position is not eligible for relocation assistance.
US based applicants only
$267,393—$550,515 USD
Pinterest’s 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.