Demo

Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Programmatic Ads

Pinterest
San Francisco, CA Full Time
POSTED ON 12/24/2025
AVAILABLE BEFORE 1/30/2026
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.

We're seeking a talented Senior Staff Software Engineer to take on a leadership role within the Programmatic Ads team. You will lead critical efforts within the team to build high throughput, low latency, solutions which power Pinterest ads business with third party partners. You will build the team roadmap and leverage state-of-the-art serving infrastructure to efficiently and effectively serve ads to Pinterest users across all surfaces, via fulfillment from third party buyers leveraging programmatic ads standards.

The Programmatic Ads team integrates with external demand partners (DSPs, SSPs, etc) through OpenRTB. We drive performance optimization (latency, conversion, engagement, fill rate, etc) for our programmatic ad products. We are also responsible for building internal tools to better enable cross-functional teams.

What You’ll Do

  • Take on the challenge of defining and executing the technical strategy for building, scaling, and modernizing our third party ads serving infrastructure
  • Rearchitect and refine the infrastructure to achieve greater scalability, freshness, and performance handling billions of ads and millions of QPS
  • Lead the collaboration with ML, product, infra, and other partner teams to evaluate the infra requests and make funding decisions
  • Lead mission critical initiatives involving 15-25 engineers and directly influence their day to day work through mentorship and leadership


What We’re Looking For

  • BS (or higher) degree in Computer Science, or a related field
  • 8 years of professional experience as a hands-on engineer and technical leader leading multiple projects
  • 5 years of relevant industry experience within the ads domain and distributed systems
  • Rich experience in working cross functionally to drive alignment, oversee execution, and secure deliverables
  • Hands on experience in solving complex scaling, latency, or low-level system performance problems in high-volume online serving systems
  • Knowledge of industry best practices and trends, and proven track record employing such solutions
  • Experience in mentoring, guiding and up-leveling junior engineers
  • Experience solving end-user problems and envisioning solutions to improve their productivity
  • Proficiency in at least one of the system languages (Java, Python)


In-Office Requirement Statement

  • We let the type of work you do guide the collaboration style. That means we're not always working in an office, but we continue to gather for key moments of collaboration and connection.
  • 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, Seattle


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

$235,964—$412,937 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.

Salary : $235,964 - $412,937

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