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Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Lead the development of complex ML models and systems for content ranking at Pinterest, collaborating across teams in a hybrid work environment.

Location
San Francisco, CA, United States
Compensation
$189.3k–$389.8k/yr
Level
staff
Type
full time · Hybrid

Posted by employer 10 hours ago

First seen on Joblaze 1 hour ago

Last verified on the company career page 1 hour ago

What you'll build

  • Lead multiple technical sub-areas within Growth content science
  • Drive Growth ML model improvements through AB test driven innovation loop
  • Own the health of our ML ecosystem
  • Collaborate and build strong working relationships with colleagues
  • Identify and apply relevant state-of-the-art techniques from recent research

Must have

  • Graduate degree in Computer Science or related field
  • Minimum of 8 years of experience in machine learning engineering
  • Expertise in recommender modeling
  • Experience in building and operating high-QPS ML systems
  • Experience in industry-grade software engineering
  • Outstanding written and verbal communication skills

Nice to have

  • Experience in mentoring junior engineers
  • Strong track record of publications and patents

Practical constraints

  • In-office collaboration 1-2 times/quarter
  • This position is not eligible for relocation assistance

Role intensity

40% coding

AI in the day-to-day

AI is a powerful partner that augments creativity and amplifies impact in the engineering process.

Requirements

Experience
8+ years
Education
Master's degree
Visa
No sponsorship (stated in posting)

Benefits

Equity/Stock Options Remote Work

Joblaze summary

In this role, the Staff Machine Learning Engineer at Pinterest focuses on enhancing the machine learning models that drive content recommendations, particularly for notifications. The position requires deep expertise in recommender systems, including advanced techniques like transformer architectures and generative models, alongside a strong foundation in software engineering practices. This role is ideal for seasoned professionals with significant experience in machine learning engineering and a track record of leading technical initiatives across teams. The team emphasizes collaboration and innovation, aiming to leverage AI to improve user engagement and content quality.

Joblaze insights

  • Listed today — first seen on Joblaze October 27, 2026. Last confirmed on Pinterest's careers page October 27, 2026.
  • This exact title is also open at 1 other location at Pinterest: San Francisco, CA, US; Remote, US.
  • Salary band is in line with the typical range for AI/ML roles (median ~$190,000).
  • Starts above 15% of 55 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States that list AI/ML we track (median $245,402 across 22 companies). See AI/ML salary trends
  • AI/ML appears in 34.6% of 283 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States; Transformers appears in 0.4% of 283 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States.

Quick facts

Is the Staff Machine Learning Engineer role remote?
It's hybrid — Pinterest expects some on-site time in San Francisco, CA, United States.
What's the salary range?
Pinterest lists $189,308–$389,753 for this role.
How much experience is required?
At least 8 years of relevant experience for this Staff Machine Learning Engineer role.
Where is the role based?
Pinterest is hiring for this position in San Francisco, CA, United States.
What's the tech stack?
Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: AI/ML, DNN, Machine Learning, Recommender Systems, Transformers, generative models.
What seniority level is this role?
Pinterest targets staff-level candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?
Full-time for this Staff Machine Learning Engineer role at Pinterest.

From the original posting

About Pinterest:

Growth Content Science builds the ML that decides which content we bring to people on our growth surfaces, with a focus on notifications. We own the real-time production stack behind that decision: candidate retrieval, L1 and L2 ranking, utility and blending, content quality along with copy generation and ranking. As a Staff Machine Learning Engineer, you'll personally build the most complex models and systems on this stack, hold the bar for code quality and healthy ML infrastructure and lead the technical direction for notification content ranking.

What you'll do

  • Lead multiple technical sub-areas within Growth content science effectively.
  • Drive Growth ML model improvements through AB test driven innovation loop - from ideation to production launches.
  • Own the health of our ML ecosystem: training pipelines, feature and serving infrastructure, evaluation frameworks and monitoring, AB test set up, etc.
  • Help raise the technical excellence bar through mentorship, reviews, evaluations, documentation, standard setting, etc.
  • Collaborate and build strong working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders to tackle big, cross-functional, initiatives.
  • Work closely with other engineering leaders to form 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 and/or collaborate on novel research directions.
  • Continuously optimize various parts of work by building and using cutting-edge AI tools.

What we're looking for

  • 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 in building and operating high-QPS, latency-constrained ML systems, including training and serving infrastructure, and in owning the cost, latency and reliability tradeoffs
  • Experience in industry-grade software engineering that others use as the example, and in conducting thorough code and design reviews that raise the quality of a team's work
  • Understanding of content personalization and content quality as one problem, and of why cold-start and low-signal users break standard rankers
  • Experience in leading technical work across teams, making timely decisions on hard tradeoffs and saying no when the user experience or the system health is at stake
  • Experience in mentoring junior engineers
  • Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, especially in a cross-functional set up
  • Demonstrated experience using AI to improve speed and quality in applied research
  • Strong track record of publications and patents

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.

#LI-REMOTE
#LI-DM57

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.

US based applicants only
$189,308—$389,753 USD

Our Commitment to Inclusion:

Standard company text repeated across Pinterest's postings is omitted here.

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