Engineering Manager II, Machine Learning – User Understanding

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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.

Pinterest is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead our User Understanding team. This team builds and maintains the data and backend systems that drive user modeling, personalization and recommendations—impacting hundreds of millions of users every day. You’ll set technical vision, empower a talented group of engineers, and collaborate closely with Machine Learning, Product, and Data Science to unlock better user experiences. We’re looking for a leader with deep infrastructure expertise, a passion for personalization and ML-driven experience, and a strong record of delivering ML-enabling platforms at scale.

What You Will Do

• Lead and mentor a team of experienced machine learning engineers in developing advanced user understanding models and systems, which are integral to key Pinterest products across Discovery, Ads, and Growth.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with partners in Product, Data Science, and Engineering to define strategy, set priorities, and effectively integrate user insights into core systems and product features.
• Drive experimentation and adoption of new user understanding models with product teams across Pinterest, ensuring measurable end-to-end impact on key metrics.
• Manage project execution and stakeholder communication, including roadmap planning, technical decision-making, risk mitigation, and progress updates to achieve business goals.
• Provide thought leadership in user modeling and recommender systems by setting a long-term technical vision and advancing the state-of-the-art in the field.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing team culture.

What We’re Looking For

• 6+ years of industry experience in applied machine learning or closely related roles, with experience developing large-scale machine learning for recommendation or ads systems.
• 2+ years of people management experience leading engineering teams.
• Demonstrated ML expertise with a proven track record of impactful solutions and a deep understanding of large scale distributed systems.
• Strong technical leadership, including a passion for driving technical direction, system architecture, and designing robust, scalable ML solutions.

Nice To Have

• Experience using Cursor, Copilot, Codex, or similar AI coding assistants for development, debugging, testing, and refactoring.
• Familiarity with LLM-powered productivity tools for documentation search, experiment analysis, SQL/data exploration, and engineering workflow acceleration.

In-Office Requirement Statement

• We recognize that the ideal environment for work is situational and may differ across departments. What this looks like day-to-day can vary based on the needs of each organization or role.

Relocation Statement:

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

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

$189,308—$389,753 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.