Principal Engineer, Online Systems

Pinterest•Palo Alto, CA

6h•Hybrid

About The Position

As a principal engineer on the Online Systems team, you’ll join a team that powers Pinterest’s most business-critical online systems at massive scale, driving the reliability, efficiency, and evolution behind every core Pinner and Advertiser experience. You'll lead major efforts like multi-region deployment and Kubernetes migration, set the standard for operational excellence, and define the long-term vision for our online serving infrastructure, supporting machine learning and product innovation across the company. This is an opportunity for high-impact technical leadership, broad visibility, and cross-functional influence at the heart of Pinterest’s platform. 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. 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.

Requirements

12+ years of software engineering experience with deep expertise in distributed systems, especially online serving, storage, and caching systems: hands-on experience building and operating highly available, reliable, production-grade systems at large scale; strong technical judgment in reliability, scalability, performance, and infrastructure efficiency; proficiency in at least one of C++, Java, or Python.
Proven track record driving large-scale technical impact: experience leading reliability and scalability improvements, cost efficiency initiatives, and modernization efforts across critical production systems; able to define technical strategy, influence architecture decisions, and drive execution through cross-functional collaboration, strong communication, and operational excellence.
Strong ownership, quality mindset, and thoughtful use of AI: demonstrates high standards for engineering quality, integrity, and accountability for final outcomes; able to use AI to accelerate analysis, debugging, design exploration, or operational workflows while applying critical thinking, validating correctness, and maintaining sound technical judgment rather than outsourcing ownership to tools.
Exceptional collaboration skills with cross-functional partners, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, make tradeoffs, and keep stakeholders aligned on priorities and progress.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

Improve reliability, scalability and infra efficiency for Pinterest’s critical online systems across storage and caching, online service and realtime analytics systems to support continued business growth.
Lead cross-functional strategic initiatives to modernize Pinterest’s online serving stack through multi-region deployment, Kubernetes migration, and the adoption of cutting-edge technologies and industry best practices.
Quality champion for online systems and the broad engineering organization, holding a high bar on execution quality and operational excellence.
Drive the online systems vision and strategy for the next 3 years and beyond, and translate that strategy into cross-functional roadmaps with measurable outcomes.
Foster a diverse and inclusive engineering culture that makes all feel welcome, and invest in mentorship, critical thinking, and candid feedback to strengthen individual and organizational growth.