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Director, Machine Learning Engineering – Content & User Understanding
H1B ✓HybriddirectorPosted July 17, 2026
About the Role
Define ML/AI vision and strategy for content and user understanding, drive innovation in VLM/LLM, lead execution of foundational ML models, and build/scale a world-class ML organization.
Requirements
Requires 12+ years of technical leadership experience, including 5+ years in people leadership, deep ML expertise in large-scale systems, and expertise in VLM and LLM approaches.
Full Job Description
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.
We are looking for a Director of Machine Learning to lead the Content and User Understanding team at Pinterest. This leader will define the long‑term ML / AI vision, technical strategy and drive execution for building the company-wide content and user understanding ML models and systems that power Pinterest’s critical product surfaces across homefeed, related, search, shopping, growth and ads.
You will oversee multiple teams of machine learning and backend engineers and managers. You’ll combine deep technical expertise with strong people leadership and product instincts to deliver industry‑leading ML solutions, including driving state of art innovation in VLM (Vision‑Language Models) and LLM (Large Language Models)-based approaches.
What you’ll do:
- 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.
What we’re looking for:
- 12+ years of professional experience as a technical leader, including 5+ years in people leadership roles (managing managers and senior ICs).
- Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in a relevant field such as computer science, or equivalent 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.
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 1–2 times every 6 months 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.
US based applicants only
$267,393—$550,515 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.
By submitting this application, I certify that all information submitted in my application and throughout the hiring process is true, accurate, and complete to the best of my knowledge. I understand that any false statement, omission, or misrepresentation may disqualify me from employment consideration or result in termination if discovered after hire.