Principal Engineer, Online Systems

As a principal engineer on the Online Systems team at Pinterest, you'll join a team that powers Pinterest's most business-critical online systems at massive scale, driving 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 online serving infrastructure, supporting machine learning and product innovation across the company.

Responsibilities:

• Improve reliability, scalability, and infra efficiency for Pinterest's critical online systems across storage and caching, online service, and real-time 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.
• Be a 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.

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.
• Ability 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.
• Exceptional collaboration skills with cross-functional partners.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent experience.

Benefits:

• Salary range: $285,452-$499,541 USD
• Equity eligibility

Note: This role requires in-office collaboration 1-2 times per quarter and is not eligible for relocation assistance.