# Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Pinterest Assistant

**Company:** [Pinterest](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/pinterest)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $209k – $429k/yr
**Experience:** 10+ years
**Skills:** Python, TypeScript, Node.js, Distributed Systems, LLMs, Machine Learning, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Personalization, APIs, Orchestration, Observability, Evaluation Frameworks, Tool Calling, Multimodal Systems, Backend Infrastructure
**Posted:** 2026-08-10

> Technical leader for the Pinterest Assistant backend platform, defining architecture and building scalable orchestration, memory, personalization, APIs, and AI infrastructure. Requires 10+ years of backend engineering experience, large-scale distributed systems leadership, and expertise partnering with ML teams on AI-powered products.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Define and drive the technical vision and architecture for backend systems powering Pinterest Assistant at scale.
- Lead design and implementation of the Assistant platform, including orchestration, memory and personalization, context management, APIs, tool integrations, and backend infrastructure.
- Drive technical strategy and foundational platform investments that improve developer velocity, reliability, and scalability.
- Partner with Product, Design, Frontend, Machine Learning, and Infrastructure teams to build personalized, multimodal conversational experiences.
- Shape architectures for AI-powered applications, including retrieval, context assembly, tool execution, memory, and model orchestration.
- Establish best practices for production LLM and agent systems, including observability, logging, evaluations, safety mechanisms, rollout strategies, and incident response.
- Mentor engineers through architecture reviews, technical guidance, and engineering leadership.
- Make pragmatic architectural decisions balancing rapid iteration with long-term maintainability.
- Influence technical direction across teams and contribute to Pinterest’s broader AI platform strategy.
- Apply advances in LLMs, agentic systems, and backend platform design to consumer products.

## Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as computer science, or equivalent experience.
- 10+ years of backend software engineering experience, including significant experience leading large, ambiguous systems for consumer experiences as a senior individual contributor.
- 3+ years operating as a technical lead driving architecture and development of large-scale distributed backend systems.
- Strong backend engineering experience with Python, TypeScript, Node.js, or similar ecosystems.
- Experience building platforms or foundational infrastructure that enables product teams to move faster.
- Strong understanding of modern model-driven systems and experience partnering with machine learning engineers on AI-powered products.
- Strong leadership, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Familiarity with retrieval, ranking, personalization, inference, context management, or orchestration.
- Track record of mentoring senior engineers and elevating engineering quality across an organization.
- Product-minded, execution-oriented, and able to lead through ambiguity.
- Strong builder’s mindset and ability to establish technical foundations for systems that grow in scale, complexity, and impact.

## Nice to Have
- Experience building AI-powered or LLM-based products at scale.
- Experience designing conversational AI, agent, tool-calling, or multimodal systems.
- Experience with retrieval, ranking, recommendation, search, or personalization systems.
- Familiarity with embeddings, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), context management, or memory architecture.
- Experience partnering with applied scientists or machine learning engineers to productionize ML capabilities.
- Familiarity with evaluation frameworks, experimentation, and quality frameworks for AI products.
- Full-stack development experience.

## Compensation and Benefits
- Base salary: $208,592–$429,454 USD.
- Position is eligible for equity.
- Benefits and culture information are available through Pinterest resources.
- This position is not eligible for relocation assistance.

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