Senior Machine Learning Engineer – Personalization & Recommendations

# Machine Learning Engineer – Personalization & Recommendations ## About the Role Pinterest is seeking a Machine Learning Engineer to build personalized experiences for more than 500 million users worldwide. You will apply deep learning and machine learning techniques to large-scale recommendation and personalization systems, helping improve product experiences across Homefeed, Ads, Growth, Shopping, and Search. The role combines hands-on machine learning, large-scale data processing, experimentation, candidate retrieval, and recommender systems. You will collaborate across teams, work with large datasets, contribute to rapid experimentation and product launches, and stay current with advances in recommendation systems and applied machine learning. ## Key Responsibilities * Build machine learning and deep learning solutions that personalize Pinterest experiences. * Develop and improve ML models across product surfaces including Homefeed, Ads, Growth, Shopping, and Search. * Partner with cross-functional teams to experiment with and improve machine learning models. * Apply data-driven methods to improve candidate retrieval and personalization. * Build and maintain data processing pipelines and large-scale machine learning systems. * Work with big data technologies and large datasets to support machine learning applications. * Contribute to rapid experimentation and high-impact product launches. * Apply machine learning approaches including user modeling, personalization, recommender systems, search, ranking, natural language processing, reinforcement learning, and graph representation learning. * Monitor industry developments and apply relevant advances in recommendation systems. * Collaborate with teams across Pinterest to understand and leverage the unique properties of Pinterest data. ## Required Qualifications * 4+ years of industry experience applying machine learning methods. * Hands-on experience building data processing pipelines. * Experience building large-scale machine learning systems. * Experience working with big data technologies such as Hadoop or Spark. * Degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, or a related field. * Experience with machine learning applications such as personalization, recommender systems, search, ranking, natural language processing, reinforcement learning, graph representation learning, or related areas. * Ability to work collaboratively across teams and contribute to experimentation and product development. ## Preferred Qualifications * Publications at top machine learning conferences. * Experience using Cursor, GitHub 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. * Expertise in scalable real-time systems that process streaming data. * Passion for applied machine learning and the Pinterest product. * M.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, NLP, Statistics, Information Sciences, a related field, or equivalent experience. ## Skills & Competencies * Machine Learning * Deep Learning * Applied Machine Learning * Personalization * Recommender Systems * Recommendation Systems * User Modeling * Search * Ranking * Candidate Retrieval * Natural Language Processing (NLP) * Reinforcement Learning * Graph Representation Learning * Data Processing Pipelines * Large-Scale Machine Learning Systems * Big Data * Hadoop * Spark * Real-Time Systems * Stream Processing * Machine Learning Experimentation * Model Development * Data-Driven Decision Making * AI Coding Assistants * LLM-Powered Productivity Tools * SQL * Data Exploration * Debugging * Testing * Refactoring * Cross-Functional Collaboration * Product Development ## Education & Experience ### Experience * 4+ years of industry experience applying machine learning methods. * End-to-end experience building data processing pipelines and large-scale machine learning systems. * Experience with big data technologies such as Hadoop or Spark. ### Education * Degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, or a related field. * Advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, NLP, Statistics, Information Sciences, a related field, or equivalent experience is preferred. ## Work Arrangement & Schedule * **Employment Type:** Not specified in the source description. * **Work Arrangement:** Remote * **Applicant Location:** U.S.-based applicants only. * **Relocation Assistance:** Not available. * **Schedule:** Not specified in the source description. * **Weekend Requirements:** Not specified. ## Compensation & Benefits * **U.S. Base Salary Range:** $189,721–$332,012 USD * The position is also eligible for equity. * Final salary is based on factors including location, travel, relevant prior experience, skills, and expertise. * Benefits information is available through Pinterest's benefits materials; specific benefits are not detailed in the source description. ## Compliance / Additional Information * **Employer:** Pinterest * Pinterest states that it is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions based on merit. * Qualified applicants receive consideration without regard to protected characteristics under applicable federal, state, or local law. * Pinterest considers qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with legal requirements. * Reasonable medical and religious accommodations are available during the application process. * Applicants certify that information submitted during the application and hiring process is accurate and complete. * Pinterest states that AI is used as a partner in its work and that its interview process evaluates both foundational skills and how candidates approach problems and collaborate with AI.