# Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Merchants

**Company:** [Pinterest](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/pinterest)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA, Palo Alto, CA
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $245k – $429k/yr
**Experience:** 10+ years
**Skills:** Machine Learning, Generative AI, System Design, API Design, Catalog Systems, Merchant Platforms, Integrations, Data Pipelines, Scalability, Reliability
**Posted:** 2026-04-15

> Leads engineering for merchant commerce platforms, focusing on catalog systems, AI/ML integrations, and onboarding to drive growth and efficiency. Requires 10+ years experience in large-scale systems, commerce domains, and AI-adjacent tech, plus bachelor's or equivalent.

## Job Description

## What you’ll do:

- Own end-to-end technical delivery for cross-team initiatives—from problem framing and technical strategy through architecture, implementation, rollout, and iteration.
- Shape catalog and integration systems for scale, reliability, and quality, ensuring merchant data is deep, broad, fresh, and actionable across partners, formats, and key signals such as inventory and pricing where relevant.
- Build and evolve **ML-**, **GenAI-**, and **AI-assisted** merchant experiences with strong validation and guardrails—for example, metadata enrichment, gap-filling, and internal tools that improve catalog health without compromising trust.
- Contribute to merchant onboarding and activation systems that span teams, creating streamlined flows, signals, and decisioning pathways that improve approval rates, merchant quality, and time to value.
- Partner where appropriate on organic attribution, merchant insights, and data-driven pathways from organic success to paid products, ensuring strategy is measurable rather than anecdotal.
- Drive technical decisions using clear tradeoffs across revenue, conversion, catalog health, engagement, and Torso success.
- Mentor senior engineers and raise the bar for technical design, engineering quality, and production readiness across the organization.
- Use AI to accelerate your own work—across exploration, drafting, analysis, and synthesis—while maintaining strong judgment, rigorous validation, and accountability for outcomes.

## What we’re looking for:

- **10+ years** of software engineering experience, including meaningful time as a Staff, Senior Staff, or equivalent-level IC building and operating complex production systems.
- Strong track record in **commerce**, marketplaces, ads, or other adjacent large-scale domains, including leadership on cross-team technical initiatives.
- Deep experience in **systems design**, **API design**, and data-intensive systems, with the ability to navigate tradeoffs in performance, reliability, and scalability.
- Experience building or partnering on **ML-**, **AI-**, or **GenAI-adjacent** systems, with a pragmatic understanding of where these technologies add value and how to deploy them responsibly.
- **Catalog**, integrations, or merchant platform experience is a strong plus.
- Experience with growth, measurement, funnel optimization, or organic-to-paid ecosystems is a plus.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to influence technical direction without directly owning every implementation detail.
- **Bachelor’s degree** in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field—or equivalent practical experience.

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