Senior Director Machine Learning - Ads Engineering

Job Summary: 

As the Sr. Director, Machine Learning - Ads Modeling, you will lead the 120+ person modeling and backend ML organization that powers Pinterest Ads performance. Modeling is the heart of Ads ML at Pinterest: your charter spans the full modeling stack—from retrieval to ranking and signals and feature platforms supporting various modeling initiatives—focused on advertiser performance. You will define multi‑year technical strategy, build a multi‑horizon investment portfolio, and scale shared platforms and frameworks that raise velocity and quality across organizations. You will lead through Senior Staff/Principal ICs and Manager of Manager, partnering closely with Ads Product, Serving/Infra, Data Science/Measurement, and Legal/Privacy.

What you'll do: 

• Set long‑term technical strategy for modeling and ranking; shape company‑level metrics and connect them to strategic investments.
• Lead cross‑org flagship initiatives; uphold the technical bar for modeling/serving quality and safety; scale shared tooling and platforms that materially improve velocity, reliability, and cost.
• Establish and improve availability, latency, and cost goals; proactively monitor reliability trends; ensure timely remediations and continuous SLA/SLO improvement.
• Structure and develop the org and leadership bench; recruit and retain top technical leaders; sponsor equitable, org‑wide development systems.
• Align leaders across business functions; communicate strategy, risks, and trade‑offs in executive forums; enable rapid innovation with strong guardrails.
• Ensure consistent delivery on OKRs and critical initiatives; make business‑level trade‑offs; secure buy‑in on high‑leverage bets.

What we're looking for:

• Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or Relevant Field; Masters/PhD highly preferred. 
• Proven record leading enterprise‑scale modeling, ranking, and marketplace systems with cross‑org impact.
• Breadth across retrieval, ranking, calibration, embeddings, auction design, and measurement; ability to guide cross‑org architecture and investments.
• Executive‑level communication and influence; aligns leaders on high‑leverage investments; manages risk at org scale while maintaining iteration velocity.
• Demonstrated success leading and developing Senior Staff/Principal ICs and Managers of Managers; robust succession planning and equitable development systems.
• Systems thinking on reliability, availability, latency, and cost; establishing and improving SLOs across modeling/serving pathways.

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:

• 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 once or twice a week and therefore needs to be in a commutable distance from one of the following offices: Palo Alto, San Francisco, or Seattle. 

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