Staff Software Engineer

Pinterest is hiring a Staff Software Engineer in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, United States. Level rates it ; you can apply on Pinterest.

Level's read on this job

Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this software engineer role: aI is not part of the work.
Level classes it as a lead role.
Pinterest has 167 other open roles on Level.
Posted in the last few days.

AI in this role

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’re looking for a Staff Software Engineer to provide technical leadership for a team transforming how merchants onboard and activate through agent enabled experiences. You will partner with Product and engineering leaders to shape the roadmap, prototype innovative ideas and deliver reliable systems that use merchant signals and personalized recommendations to create measurable business impact.

What you’ll do:

Lead the architecture and delivery of scalable, MCP first systems for merchant onboarding, activation and growth experiences.
Partner with Product to shape a growth roadmap, identify high value opportunities and convert the strongest concepts into production experiences.
Design integrations that apply high quality merchant signals and personalized recommendations across Pinterest surfaces and approved external agent ecosystems.
Build agent enabled experiences that improve merchant readiness and campaign creation, with clear measurement of their contribution to business impact.
Use AI to accelerate prototyping, analysis and iteration while applying judgment and verification to ensure quality, reliability and user trust.
Improve the team's AI harness across development, testing, quality validation and service operations.
Raise the technical bar through clear technical direction, design reviews and coaching that helps engineers make thoughtful decisions and deliver with strong ownership.

What we’re looking for:

Experience leading architecture and delivery for complex software systems spanning product surfaces, backend services, data signals and external integrations.
Experience designing agent enabled systems and MCP based integrations, with strong judgment around reliability, security, data quality and user trust.
Experience partnering with Product to shape roadmaps, prototype new ideas and make technical tradeoffs that support growth goals.
Experience in experimentation, measurement and causal thinking, with the ability to connect product and technical decisions to business impact.
Experience improving the effectiveness of an AI first engineering team through technical direction, design reviews, coaching and practical improvements to AI assisted development, testing and operations.
Demonstrated ability to use AI to improve speed and quality in your day to day workflow for relevant outputs, while critically evaluating and verifying AI assisted work.
Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent work experience

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

At Pinterest, 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 time per week and therefore needs to be in a commutable distance from one of the following offices San Francisco, Palo Alto, Seattle, New York City or Los Angeles.

#LI-DM57

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$208,454—$364,795 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 Software Engineer at Pinterest rates 14 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● 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. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Staff Software Engineer is an open job at Pinterest.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The role is based in San Francisco, CA, US; Los Angeles, CA, US; Seattle, WA, US; New York, NY, US.
The job was posted on November 9, 2026.
Seniority: lead.
Applications are handled by Pinterest. Apply on Pinterest