Director, Machine Learning Engineering – Content & User Understanding

Pinterest is a platform where millions find creative ideas and plan for memories. They are seeking a Director of Machine Learning to lead the Content and User Understanding team, defining the ML vision and strategy while overseeing execution across various product surfaces.

Responsibilities:

• 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

Requirements:

• 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