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.

Job Summary:

As the Sr. Director, Machine Learning - Ads Modeling, you will lead the 120+ person modeling and backend ML organization that powers Pinterest Ads performance. Modeling is the heart of Ads ML at Pinterest: your charter spans the full modeling stack—from retrieval to ranking and signals and feature platforms supporting various modeling initiatives—focused on advertiser performance. You will define multi‑year technical strategy, build a multi‑horizon investment portfolio, and scale shared platforms and frameworks that raise velocity and quality across organizations. You will lead through Senior Staff/Principal ICs and Manager of Manager, partnering closely with Ads Product, Serving/Infra, Data Science/Measurement, and Legal/Privacy.

What you'll do:

Set long‑term technical strategy for modeling and ranking; shape company‑level metrics and connect them to strategic investments.
Lead cross‑org flagship initiatives; uphold the technical bar for modeling/serving quality and safety; scale shared tooling and platforms that materially improve velocity, reliability, and cost.
Establish and improve availability, latency, and cost goals; proactively monitor reliability trends; ensure timely remediations and continuous SLA/SLO improvement.
Structure and develop the org and leadership bench; recruit and retain top technical leaders; sponsor equitable, org‑wide development systems.
Align leaders across business functions; communicate strategy, risks, and trade‑offs in executive forums; enable rapid innovation with strong guardrails.
Ensure consistent delivery on OKRs and critical initiatives; make business‑level trade‑offs; secure buy‑in on high‑leverage bets.

What we're looking for:

Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or Relevant Field; Masters/PhD highly preferred.
Proven record leading enterprise‑scale modeling, ranking, and marketplace systems with cross‑org impact.
Breadth across retrieval, ranking, calibration, embeddings, auction design, and measurement; ability to guide cross‑org architecture and investments.
Executive‑level communication and influence; aligns leaders on high‑leverage investments; manages risk at org scale while maintaining iteration velocity.
Demonstrated success leading and developing Senior Staff/Principal ICs and Managers of Managers; robust succession planning and equitable development systems.
Systems thinking on reliability, availability, latency, and cost; establishing and improving SLOs across modeling/serving pathways.

Relocation Statement:

This position is not eligible for relocation assistance. Visit our PinFlex page to learn more about our working model.

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 once or twice a week and therefore needs to be in a commutable distance from one of the following offices: Palo Alto, San Francisco, or Seattle.

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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.

US based applicants only

$324,545—$567,954 USD

Our Commitment to Inclusion:

Pinterest is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions on the basis of merit. We want to have the best qualified people in every job. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, status as a protected veteran, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information or characteristics (or those of a family member) or any other consideration made unlawful by applicable federal, state or local laws. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you require a medical or religious accommodation during the job application process, please complete this form for support.

Senior Director Machine Learning - Ads Engineering

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