Pinterest’s new head of engineering brings deep ecommerce experience

Pinterest has recruited Walmart’s former CTO Jeremy King as its new head of engineering. King will lead the team responsible for building Pinterest’s visual search engine and report to CEO Ben Silbermann.

Why you should care

As Pinterest closes in on an IPO date, the social network is beefing up its ecommerce chops. Adding King to the executive mix — an ecommerce technology expert who has been focused on creating “seamless shopping experiences” for companies like Walmart and eBay — should better position Pinterest to compete for social ecommerce dollars and market share.

Pinterest’s focus on ecommerce could be good news for marketers who’d like to see the platform move more aggressively in this area. Recent features for retail marketers include Shopping ads and Shop the Look pins.

“Not only is Jeremy a respected engineering leader, but from the moment we met him, we knew his values around putting the customer first were aligned with our own focus on Pinners. As we build products to inspire people to create a life they love, Jeremy’s technical experience and leadership are a perfect combination to build a visual discovery engine for all,” said CEO Ben Silbermann.

More on the news

• As Walmart’s CTO, King oversaw the technology teams for the retailer’s U.S. retail stores and ecommerce for Walmart and Jet.
• In addition to his C-level role at Walmart, King also served as an EVP at LiveOps and VP of engineering for eBay.
• Pinterest has steadily built out its executive team over the last year, hiring Francis Brougher as its first COO and, more recently, naming Andréa Mallard as CMO.