Pinterest

Director, Machine Learning Engineering - Content & User Understanding

Pinterest$267K — $500K+*
US-AnywhereRemote in San Francisco, CA
Consumer Technology
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 12+ years of experience as a technical leader in ML and AI
  • 5+ years managing teams and individual contributors
  • Technical degree or equivalent practical experience
  • Expertise in large-scale ML systems for recommendation, ads, or search
  • Solid understanding of VLM and LLM approaches
  • Proven ability to set long-term technical vision and achieve business impacts
  • Exceptional communication and collaboration skills

Responsibilities

  • Define the multi-year ML vision and strategy for content and user understanding
  • Drive innovation in cutting-edge AI techniques like sequence modeling and VLM
  • Ensure scalability and effectiveness of ML models across Pinterest surfaces
  • Collaborate with various teams to translate ML insights into business results
  • Hire and develop a high-performing ML and backend engineering team
  • Foster a culture of innovation and technical excellence
  • Act as the technical representative for content and user understanding initiatives

Benefits

  • Flexible work model with minimal in-office requirements
  • Focus on collaboration during key in-person meetings
  • Commitment to an equitable and inclusive workplace
  • Opportunity to work in a dynamic and inspiring environment
Full Job Description
We are 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. You will oversee multiple teams of machine learning and backend engineers and managers. You'll combine deep technical expertise with strong people leadership and product instincts to deliver industry-leading ML solutions, including driving state of art innovation in VLM (Vision-Language Models) and LLM (Large Language Models)-based approaches. 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). • Technical degree in a related field, or equivalent practical experience. • 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. Visit our PinFlex page to learn more about our working model. #LI-AK7 #LI-REMOTE 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 $267,393-$550,515 USD

About Pinterest

Pinterest is a social media platform that allows users to discover and save ideas for recipes, home decor, fashion, and more. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Pinterest has over 400 million monthly active users and is available in over 30 languages. The company's mission is to help people discover and do what they love.
Learn more about Pinterest
Size
3,225 employees
Market Cap
$16 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$128.3 million
Founded
2009
5 Year Trend
+53.9%
Revenue
$1.6 billion
NASDAQ

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