Staff Software Engineer, Merchants & Ads Review

<div class="content-intro"><p><strong>About Pinterest:</strong></p> <p>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.</p> <p>Discover a career where you ignite innovation for millions, transform passion into growth opportunities, celebrate each other’s unique experiences and embrace the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pinterestcareers.com/our-life/pinflex/">flexibility</a> to do your best work. Creating a career you love? It’s Possible.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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 <a href="https://www.pinterestcareers.com/our-philosophy-on-ai-in-hiring/">here</a>.</p></div><p>We’re hiring a Staff Software Engineer for Merchants &amp; Ads Review.</p> <p>This team is responsible for keeping our platform safe from malicious advertisers, low-quality merchants, and policy violating ads, while helping the business grow revenue and expand to new markets, verticals, policies, and ad types.</p> <p>In this role, you’ll lead our AI-first efforts, building and evolving our review systems. You’ll partner closely with Engineering Managers, Product Managers, and experts from Policy, Legal, and Trust &amp; Safety to drive our systems forward. You act as a mentor to the rest of the team, helping them grow their careers and accelerate their velocity with AI tooling. This is a high agency, high impact role with a broad scope and direct levers on both revenue and platform safety.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>What you’ll do:&nbsp;</strong></p> <ul> <li>Own end-to-end technical delivery for cross-team initiatives—from problem framing and technical strategy through architecture, implementation, rollout, and iteration.</li> <li>Build and evolve ML-, GenAI-, and AI-assisted merchant, ad, and advertiser review experiences with strong validation and guardrails.</li> <li>Mentor junior and senior engineers and raise the bar for technical design, engineering quality, and production readiness across the team.</li> <li>Partner with cross-functional stakeholders on a variety of projects to improve the safety of our platform, increase efficiency, reduce time to spend, and generate revenue</li> <li>Use AI to accelerate your own work—across exploration, drafting, analysis, and synthesis—while maintaining strong judgment, rigorous validation, and accountability for outcomes.</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>What we’re looking for:</strong></p> <ul> <li>8+ years of software engineering experience, including meaningful time as a Staff, Senior Staff, or equivalent-level IC building and operating complex production systems.</li> <li>Strong track record in ads, commerce, trust &amp; safety, or GenAI.</li> <li>Deep experience in systems design, full-stack software engineering, and data-intensive systems, with the ability to navigate tradeoffs in performance, reliability, and scalability.</li> <li>Experience building or partnering on ML-, AI-, or GenAI-adjacent systems, with a pragmatic understanding of where these technologies add value and how to deploy them responsibly.</li> <li>Strong communication skills and the ability to influence technical direction without directly owning every implementation detail.</li> <li>Demonstrated experience building and enhancing cross-functional partnerships with other teams and organizations.</li> <li>Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field—or equivalent practical experience.</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Relocation Statement</strong>:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li>This position <strong>is not </strong>eligible for relocation assistance. Visit our <a href="https://www.pinterestcareers.com/pinflex/">PinFlex</a> page to learn more about our working model.</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>In-Office Requirement Statement</strong>:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li>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.</li> <li>This role will need to be in the office for in-person collaboration <strong>1 times per week</strong> and therefore needs to be in a commutable distance from one of the following offices SF/Palo Alto Office.</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>#LI-HYBRID&nbsp;</p> <p>#LI-KBF</p><div class="content-pay-transparency"><div class="pay-input"><div class="description"><p>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.</p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Information regarding the culture at Pinterest and benefits available for this position can be found <a href="https://www.pinterestcareers.com/pinterest-life/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></em></p></div><div class="title">US based applicants only</div><div class="pay-range"><span>$208,454</span><span class="divider">&mdash;</span><span>$364,795 USD</span></div></div></div><div class="content-conclusion"><p><strong>Our Commitment to Inclusion:</strong></p> <div>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&nbsp;<a href="https://forms.gle/sS24D4WboEKUZMQK6">this form</a>&nbsp;for support. &l