Staff Software Engineer, Big Data Storage

About the Role

We’re looking for a Staff Software Engineer to help build the next generation of Pinterest’s big data storage platform. You’ll work on big data open source technologies — especially Apache Iceberg — at exabyte scale to power the data infrastructure that helps Pinners discover and do what they love.

As a Staff Software Engineer, you’ll serve as a technical leader and hands-on contributor, designing and building highly scalable storage systems for Pinterest’s data lake. You’ll partner closely with teams across data, ML/AI, analytics, and infrastructure to evolve our storage and metadata management capabilities, enabling efficient, reliable, and governed access to data at massive scale.

What You’ll Do

• Design, implement, and optimize Pinterest’s exabyte-scale data lake storage platform.
• Lead complex technical projects and initiatives for data lake storage and metadata management, driving them from architecture through execution.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and partner teams across the organization to design storage and metadata layer technologies that unlock big data and ML/AI innovations.
• Build storage capabilities that efficiently support large-scale ML/AI workloads, including high-throughput data access, schema evolution, and large-scale column backfills.
• Shape the long-term technical direction for scalable, reliable, and efficient big data storage systems.
• Engage with and contribute to open source communities such as Apache Iceberg, Spark, and Flink to help address Pinterest’s scaling challenges.

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years of relevant industry experience designing and building large-scale production distributed systems.
• Strong experience designing and maintaining scalable storage, metadata, or data lake infrastructure.
• Experience building storage capabilities for large-scale ML/AI or analytics workloads, including high-throughput data access, schema evolution, and large-scale column backfills.
• Deep knowledge with building distributed systems, data storage systems, and production infrastructure.
• Experience with big data technologies such as Apache Iceberg, Spark, Flink, Presto/Trino, Hive, or similar systems.
• Proficiency in programming languages like Java, Scala, or Python.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives and influence architecture across teams.
• Strong collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills, with a drive for technical excellence and innovation.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, or equivalent experience.

Collaboration & In-Office Expectations

• This role will need to be in the office for in-person collaboration 1-2 times/quarter and can be situated anywhere in the country.