Director of Data Science, Pinterest
Ads Delivery & Performance
$233.3-480.3k
+ Equity
More information about location
Visual bookmarking tool for saving & discovering creative ideas
Be an early applicant
Visual bookmarking tool for saving & discovering creative ideas
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$233.3-480.3k
+ Equity
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love.
Role
Who you are
- MS or PhD in a quantitative field (Computer Science, Statistics, Math, Engineering, Economics or related) or equivalent practical experience
- 10+ years in Data Science, Algorithmic Engineering, or Machine Learning, with significant impact in digital advertising or large‑scale marketplaces
- 5+ years directly managing data science organizations, including managing managers and scaling multi‑team groups in a technology company
- Deep experience with:
- Statistical analysis and causal inference, experiment design, and measurement for complex marketplaces
- Production analytics and large‑scale data tooling (e.g., Python/R, SQL; Spark/Hive or similar)
- Applied ML or relevance/ranking systems; familiarity with auction dynamics, pacing, bidding, and quality/relevance modeling
- Proven track record of establishing and operating through input metrics tied to business outcomes
- Excellent written and verbal communication; adept at influencing senior cross‑functional partners and executives
What the job involves
- You’ll lead a high‑impact data science organization that partners deeply with Product, Engineering, Research, and other cross functional partners to build the next generation of advertising products and systems
- About the role We’re looking for a Director who is a leader of leaders and a systems thinker
- You will set the strategy for ads delivery and quality, establish the measurement and decision frameworks, and scale a best‑in‑class team of data scientists
- A core mandate for this role is to identify, instrument, and operationalize the input metrics that most directly drive ads delivery, quality, and performance - ensuring we are optimizing the levers that move outcomes, not just reporting on lagging KPIs
- Set strategy and outcomes
- Define the multi‑year vision and roadmap for Ads Delivery & Performance across all Pinterest surfaces, aligning to company and Ads org priorities
- Establish clear north-star outcomes (e.g., long‑term revenue quality, retained advertiser value, Pinner experience) and the right cascade of input metrics and guardrails that drive them
- Make input metrics a first‑class operating system
- Identify, define, and instrument the input metrics that most influence delivery and performance, such as: supply health and coverage, eligibility and match rate, win rate, fill rate, pacing and spend smoothness, auction/bid competitiveness, latency/SLA adherence, ranking/model freshness and coverage, feature quality, CTR/CVR leading indicators, frequency and ad load distribution, quality/relevance signals, and policy/trust frictions
- Build metric specs, ownership, alerting, and weekly business reviews so that teams operate to inputs (and understand their elasticities to outcomes like RPM, ROAS, advertiser retention, and Pinner satisfaction)
- Lead an organization of leaders
- Hire, develop, and inspire a diverse, high‑performance organization of data science managers and senior ICs; set crisp role definitions, growth paths, and succession planning
- Establish rigorous standards for experimentation, causal inference, and production analytics; ensure consistently trustworthy, decision‑grade outputs
- Partner to ship impact
- Work hand‑in‑hand with Product and Engineering on marketplace, ranking, pacing, and quality systems (e.g., auction design, supply/demand balancing, relevance, cold‑start, ads load/frequency, shopping ads delivery)
- Translate ambiguous business questions into structured analyses and roadmaps; ensure the org moves from insight to shipped change with measurable impact
- Elevate measurement and decision quality
- Own the measurement strategy for ads quality and delivery: counterfactual measurement, lift and incrementality, experiment design, long‑term value, and guardrail monitoring for Pinner experience
- Improve our decision frameworks, define minimum statistical standards, and drive consistency in A/B testing, quasi‑experiments, and observational methods when experiments are impractical
- Communicate and align
- Present complex analytical findings to executives and cross‑functional partners with clarity; drive alignment on trade‑offs across revenue, advertiser value, and Pinner experience
- Create transparent operating cadences (QBRs/MBRs, input metric reviews, launch reviews) that keep teams focused on the levers that matter
Our take
Inspiration and ideas can pop into your head at any time, and with the growth of social media and networking, sharing these interests and gaining exposure has never been easier. Pinterest exists to display these moments visually, as a kind of digital pinboard allowing users to save and share digital images which have inspired them.
Pinterest's emphasis on visual discovery has differentiated it from competitors and created a more positive and fulfilling experience for its users. Pinterest in many ways provides a respite from the ceaseless negativity that plagues social media such as Facebook and Twitter, and this is perhaps responsible for its userbase expanding to 450 million users in 2022, driven by uptake mostly outside of North America.
Pinterest has not been immune to woes affecting the global tech sector and made about 5% of its workforce redundant at the end of 2022 and the start of 2023. Having restructured to face a challenging climate, it is well-positioned to resume its growth, which has increased consistently year on year. Its immediate goals are to continue to grow its user base and expand the uptake of its short video product, which it aims to monetize.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
9% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company HQ
SoMa, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Ben Silbermann
(CEO)Worked as a Product Specialist at Google for 2 years before leaving to work on his own apps, which led to founding Pinterest
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