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.
Discover a career where you ignite innovation for millions, transform passion into growth opportunities, celebrate each other’s unique experiences and embrace the flexibility to do your best work. Creating a career you love? It’s Possible.
At Pinterest, AI isn't just a feature, it's a powerful partner that augments our creativity and amplifies our impact, and we’re looking for candidates who are excited to be a part of that. To get a complete picture of your experience and abilities, we’ll explore your foundational skills and how you collaborate with AI.
Through our interview process, what matters most is that you can always explain your approach, showing us not just what you know, but how you think. You can read more about our AI interview philosophy and how we use AI in our recruiting process here.
About Pinterest
Millions of people across the world come to Pinterest to find new ideas every day. It’s where they get inspiration, dream about new possibilities and plan for what matters most. Our mission is to help those people find their inspiration and create a life they love. As a Pinterest employee, you’ll be challenged to take on work that upholds this mission and pushes Pinterest forward. You’ll grow as a person and leader in your field, all the while helping users make their lives better in the positive corner of the internet.
Our new progressive work model is called PinFlex, a term that’s uniquely Pinterest to describe our flexible approach to living and working. Visit our PinFlex landing page to learn more.
Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Applied Science
As part of Pinterest Labs, you'll work on tackling new challenges in machine learning and artificial intelligence along with a world-class team of research scientists and machine learning engineers. In this role, you will play a central part in transforming how content is discovered on Pinterest by driving the research, architecture, scale and production deployment of Generative Recommendation System (GenRec) and Reinforcement Learning solutions. You will conduct research that directly applies across Pinterest engineering teams, engage in external collaborations and mentoring, and perform research in the intersection of recommendation systems, LLMs, VLMs, and reinforcement learning.
What you’ll do:
- Contribute to cutting-edge AI/ML research that can be applied to Pinterest challenges across Ads, Discovery, Growth, and Search.
- Identify, scope, architect, build, and deliver full, novel ML solutions from 0 to 1 at scale. Identify timelines and obtain resources needed.
- Identify new and upcoming research opportunities by interacting with external and internal collaborators. Own long-term research strategy and plans to expand the impact of Applied Science.
- Act as a technical leader in the applied AI space. partner with Product, Engineering, and Data Science to translate complex engineering solutions into product impact.
What we’re looking for:
- MS/PhD in Computer Science, or equivalent industry experience
- Minimum 6 years of relevant industry experience
- Hands-on experience with large-scale recommendation system and reinforcement learning applications; experience with LLM/VLM post-training is a plus
- Technical leadership and experience in driving ambiguous research problems into production deliverables
- Publications at top ML conferences (e.g. KDD, NeurIPS, RecSys, etc.)
- Cross-functional collaborator and strong communicator
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.
Relocation Statement:
- This position is not eligible for relocation assistance. Visit our PinFlex page to learn more about our working model.
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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.
Our Commitment to Inclusion:
Skills Required
- MS or PhD in Computer Science, or equivalent industry experience
- Minimum 6 years of relevant industry experience
- Hands-on experience with large-scale recommendation systems and reinforcement learning applications
- Technical leadership experience driving ambiguous research problems into production deliverables
- Publications at top machine learning conferences such as KDD, NeurIPS, or RecSys
- Cross-functional collaboration and strong communication skills
- Experience with LLM or VLM post-training
Pinterest Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Pinterest and has not been reviewed or approved by Pinterest.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Compensation is considered competitive in core technical roles, with clearly defined base, bonus, and RSU components. Vesting schedules and pay elements are articulated clearly, supporting visibility into total rewards.
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Parental & Family Support — Policies include substantial paid parental leave globally alongside fertility and family‑building benefits, adoption assistance, and dedicated caregiver supports. Communications also highlight a phased return‑to‑work approach.
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Flexible Benefits — PinFlex enables role‑dependent hybrid/remote work with home‑office, connectivity, and commuter support, plus the option to work internationally for a limited period with approval. Time away is reinforced by a paid company shutdown and generous vacation framing.
Pinterest Insights
What We Do
Pinterest is the visual inspiration platform people around the world use to shop products personalized to their taste, find ideas to do offline and discover the most inspiring creators. Today, more than 460 million people come to the platform every month to explore and experience billions of ideas that have been saved. We’re proud to help people to discover and do what they love.
