Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Conversion Core Modeling

Pinterest is hiring a Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Conversion Core Modeling in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Seattle, United States. Level rates it ; you can apply on Level.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this machine learning engineer role Uses AI ●●○○: an ordinary role that requires AI tools.
The posting mentions Copilot, Cursor and Codex among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a lead role.
Pinterest has 155 other open roles on Level.
This posting went up in the last few days.

AI in this role

copilotcursorcodex

About Pinterest:

Millions of people around the world come to our platform to find creative ideas, dream about new possibilities and plan for memories that will last a lifetime. At Pinterest, we’re on a mission to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love, and that starts with the people behind the product.

Discover a career where you ignite innovation for millions, transform passion into growth opportunities, celebrate each other’s unique experiences and embrace the flexibility to do your best work. Creating a career you love? It’s Possible.

At Pinterest, AI isn't just a feature, it's a powerful partner that augments our creativity and amplifies our impact, and we’re looking for candidates who are excited to be a part of that. To get a complete picture of your experience and abilities, we’ll explore your foundational skills and how you collaborate with AI.

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.

We are looking for a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to lead the technical vision for our Ads Conversion Core Modeling team, building the state-of-the-art systems that power our global marketplace.

What you’ll do:

Lead the technical direction and development of state-of-the-art applied ML projects for ads conversion.
Design and build large-scale DNN models to improve user action prediction with low latency.
Mine text, visual, and user signals to better understand intention and infer interests from online activity.
Use AI to accelerate analysis and iteration, while applying judgment and verification to ensure correctness and quality.
Automate repeatable tasks such as documentation, reporting, and QA checks to speed up the development lifecycle.
Coach and mentor engineers while collaborating with product and sales to design new ad products.

What we’re looking for:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Statistics, or a related field.
Minimum 6 years of industry experience building production ML systems at scale (Search, Recommendations, or Ranking).
Minimum 2 years of experience leading technical projects or teams.
Demonstrated ability to use AI to improve speed and quality in your day-to-day workflow for relevant outputs.
Experience with 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.
High integrity and ownership: you protect sensitive data, avoid over-reliance on AI, and remain accountable for final deliverables.
Strong mathematical foundation and experience with statistical methods and A/B testing.

Relocation Statement:

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

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.
This role will need to be in the office for in-person collaboration 1-2 times per month and therefore needs to be in a commutable distance from one of the following offices: San Francisco, Palo Alto, Seattle.

#LI-HYBRID

#LI-SM4

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$222,716—$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. By submitting this application, I certify that all information submitted in my application and throughout the hiring process is true, accurate, and complete to the best of my knowledge. I understand that any false statement, omission, or misrepresentation may disqualify me from employment consideration or result in termination if discovered after hire.

How we rate this

Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Conversion Core Modeling at Pinterest rates 43 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Uses AI (AI Level 2 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Uses AI. An ordinary role that requires AI tools.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.

Key facts

Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Conversion Core Modeling is an open job at Pinterest.
Level rates this role AI Level 2 of 4: Uses AI.
The role is based in San Francisco, CA, US; Palo Alto, CA, US; Seattle, WA, US.
The job was posted on October 16, 2026.
Seniority: lead.
Applications are handled by Pinterest. Apply on Pinterest

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

CopilotCursorCodex

Pay

Typical machine learning engineer job: $196k

This posting doesn't list pay. Use the typical machine learning engineer figure when pay comes up. See machine learning engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

What's a project where you used Copilot hands-on?
Walk me through how you've used Cursor in your day-to-day work.
What are the limits of Codex that you've run into, and how did you work around them?
This role expects you to use AI tools as part of the job. Which ones have you used, and for what?
Tell me about a time an AI tool got something wrong. How did you catch it?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Copilot, Cursor, and Codex. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Put the AI tool in a bullet point about what you did, not just in a skills list. This role treats it as a required part of the job.

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