Principal Innovation Engineering

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. 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. The Cache Infra team manages one of Pinterest’s most vital backend systems, offering huge scope and impact by serving hundreds of business‑critical use cases across the entire company. This role provides a unique opportunity to gain hands‑on experience in building and operating large‑scale distributed systems. The team works on challenging, exciting, and impactful projects, including new cache stack, compute modernization initiatives, and innovations related to AI.

Lead a high‑performing team to build reliable, performant and efficient caching systems that operate at a huge scale and empower numerous business critical applications across the entire company.

Lead a cross‑functional strategic initiative to modernize the cache infra tech stack by adopting cutting‑edge technologies.

Maintain a high engineering standard for cache infrastructure, focusing on continuous improvement in reliability, scalability, performance, cost efficiency, and developer velocity.

Drive the strategic migration of memcached from the current legacy deployment system to Kubernetes.

Help create a diverse and inclusive team culture that makes all feel welcome while encouraging critical thinking and candid feedback.

1+ years of experience leading or managing engineering teams, including setting direction, driving execution, and supporting team members’ growth.

Hands on experience building and operating highly available, reliable, production‑grade systems at scale.

Experience coding in one of the following languages: Java, Python and/or C/C++.

Experience recruiting and managing technical teams, including performance management.

Demonstrated experience leveraging AI to accelerate development, enhance operations, and improve customer support.

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent experience.

Relocation Statement

This position is not eligible for relocation assistance. In-Office Requirement Statement

This role will need to be in the office for in‑person collaboration 1‑2 times per quarter and therefore needs to be in a commutable distance from one of the following offices: Our Commitment to Inclusion:
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.

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.