Principal Engineer, Online Systems
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 produ
What this role actually needs.
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 produ Responsibilities: - Improve reliability, scalability and infra efficiency for Pinterest’s critical online systems across storage and caching, online service and realtime analytics systems to support continued business growth. - Lead cross-functional strategic initiatives to modernize Pinterest’s online serving stack through multi-region deployment, Kubernetes migration, and the adoption of cutting-edge technologies and industry best practices. - Quality champion for online systems and the broad engineering organization, holding a high bar on execution quality and operational excellence. - Drive the online systems vision and strategy for the next 3 years and beyond, and translate that strategy into cross-functional roadmaps with measurable outcomes. - Foster a diverse and inclusive engineering culture that makes all feel welcome, and invest in mentorship, critical thinking, and candid feedback to strengthen individual and organizational growth. - 12+ years of software engineering experience with deep expertise in distributed systems, especially online serving, storage, and caching systems: hands-on experience building and operating highly available, reliable, production-grade systems at large scale; strong technical judgment in reliability, scalability, performance, and infrastructure efficiency; proficiency in at least one of C++, Java, or Python. Requirements: - 12+ years of software engineering experience with deep expertise in distributed systems, especially online serving, storage, and caching systems: hands-on experience building and operating highly available, reliable, production-grade systems at large scale; strong technical judgment in reliability, scalability, performance, and infrastructure efficiency; proficiency in at least one of C++, Java, or Python. - Proven track record driving large-scale technical impact: experience leading reliability and scalability improvements, cost efficiency initiatives, and modernization efforts across critical production systems; able to define technical strategy, influence architecture decisions, and drive execution through cross-functional collaboration, strong communication, and operational excellence. - Strong ownership, quality mindset, and thoughtful use of AI: demonstrates high standards for engineering quality, integrity, and accountability for final outcomes; able to use AI to accelerate analysis, debugging, design exploration, or operational workflows while applying critical thinking, validating correctness, and maintaining sound technical judgment rather than outsourcing ownership to tools. - Exceptional collaboration skills with cross-functional partners, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, make tradeoffs, and keep stakeholders aligned on priorities and progress. - Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent experience. - This position is not eligible for relocation assistance. Visit our PinFlex page to learn more about our working model. Company context: Pinterest is the visual discovery platform that powers idea search and shopping across web and mobile.
Day-to-day expectations
Pinterest lists these responsibilities for the Principal Engineer, Online Systems role.
- Improve reliability, scalability and infra efficiency for Pinterest’s critical online systems across storage and caching, online service and realtime analytics systems to support continued business growth.
- Lead cross-functional strategic initiatives to modernize Pinterest’s online serving stack through multi-region deployment, Kubernetes migration, and the adoption of cutting-edge technologies and industry best practices.
- Quality champion for online systems and the broad engineering organization, holding a high bar on execution quality and operational excellence.
- Drive the online systems vision and strategy for the next 3 years and beyond, and translate that strategy into cross-functional roadmaps with measurable outcomes.
- Foster a diverse and inclusive engineering culture that makes all feel welcome, and invest in mentorship, critical thinking, and candid feedback to strengthen individual and organizational growth.
- 12+ years of software engineering experience with deep expertise in distributed systems, especially online serving, storage, and caching systems: hands-on experience building and operating highly available, reliable, production-grade systems at large scale; strong technical judgment in reliability, scalability, performance, and infrastructure efficiency; proficiency in at least one of C++, Java, o
What a strong candidate brings
These requirements are extracted from the source listing and normalized for UpJobz readers.
- 12+ years of software engineering experience with deep expertise in distributed systems, especially online serving, storage, and caching systems: hands-on experience building and operating highly available, reliable, production-grade systems at large scale; strong technical judgment in reliability, scalability, performance, and infrastructure efficiency; proficiency in at least one of C++, Java, o
- Proven track record driving large-scale technical impact: experience leading reliability and scalability improvements, cost efficiency initiatives, and modernization efforts across critical production systems; able to define technical strategy, influence architecture decisions, and drive execution through cross-functional collaboration, strong communication, and operational excellence.
- Strong ownership, quality mindset, and thoughtful use of AI: demonstrates high standards for engineering quality, integrity, and accountability for final outcomes; able to use AI to accelerate analysis, debugging, design exploration, or operational workflows while applying critical thinking, validating correctness, and maintaining sound technical judgment rather than outsourcing ownership to tools
- Exceptional collaboration skills with cross-functional partners, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, make tradeoffs, and keep stakeholders aligned on priorities and progress.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent experience.
- This position is not eligible for relocation assistance. Visit our PinFlex page to learn more about our working model.
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Open the source listing from pinterestcareers.com, confirm the role is still active, then apply on the employer or ATS page.
Source: pinterestcareers.com · Source ID: 7782229 · Confidence: 90/100 · Last checked: May 7, 2026
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