Pinterest is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the technical strategy and execution for their Indexing & Retrieval Infrastructure across Core, Ads, and Shopping. This role is central to the delivery infrastructure organization and focuses on generating fresh, relevant, and cost-efficient candidates for discovery experiences. The ideal candidate will work closely with engineering, product, and infrastructure leaders to modernize indexing architecture and improve retrieval performance. This position emphasizes the use of AI to enhance engineering workflows and decision-making.

• Deep expertise in building and evolving large-scale indexing, search, recommendation, or ads retrieval systems.
• Strong technical leadership experience across multiple teams or organizations.
• Proven ability to lead large modernization efforts such as architectural convergence or migration from legacy systems.
• Exceptional systems thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Strong communication skills to distill complex technical topics for diverse audiences.
• Demonstrated experience using AI to improve engineering workflows.
• Strong track record of evaluating and validating AI-assisted work.
• High integrity and ownership in handling sensitive data and production-critical systems.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.

• Define and drive the long-term technical vision for indexing and retrieval infrastructure.
• Lead cross-org initiatives to modernize Pinterest’s indexing architecture.
• Partner closely with engineering, product, ML, and infrastructure leaders to align priorities.
• Raise the technical bar for retrieval infrastructure through system design and architecture reviews.
• Build shared platform capabilities to improve tradeoffs between relevance, safety, engagement, and cost.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders across teams.
• Use AI to accelerate analysis, prototyping, and iteration on system design options.
• Streamline repeatable work using AI for technical investigations and documentation.