Weiqi An
Software Engineer at Pinterest ๐ I build AI things that millions of people use.
Also a city walker ๐ถ and part-time Go teacher โซโช
Turning ideas into reality for millions
I'm a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Pinterest (ex-Meta), building AI-native systems across LLM applications, evaluation, and large-scale consumer deployment.
I build end-to-end agent systems โ from orchestration and tool use to safety guardrails, feedback loops, and evaluation pipelines โ turning early-stage capabilities into production systems used by millions.
My work spans the full stack โ product backend, web, mobile (React Native/iOS), recommendation systems, model training, data pipelines, trust & safety, and more recently LLM-powered products. I go wherever the problem needs me, with a focus on reliability, iteration velocity, and real-world impact.
I hold an M.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Peking University.
Tech I work with
- ๐ป Python / Java / TypeScript
- โ๏ธ React / React Native
- ๐ค LLM & Agent Systems
- ๐ GraphQL / LangGraph
- โก Spark / Kafka / Airflow
- โ๏ธ AWS / Docker / K8s
- ๐ง PyTorch / ML Pipelines
- ๐ฏ Recommendation Systems
- ๐ก๏ธ Trust & Safety
How I got here
2019 โ Present
๐ก๏ธ I started on Trust & Safety โ a familiar world from my Facebook days. Then jumped to Pinterest's in-house incubator TwoTwenty โ basically a small startup inside a big company ๐ We prototype fast, ship to real users, and figure out what works.
โจ That's where Shuffles came from โ a collage app that accidentally went viral on TikTok and became the #1 Lifestyle app. We turned it into a core Pinterest feature. Same with Pinterest TV and Frontseat โ live shopping and creator monetization, built end-to-end.
๐ค More recently, I've been deep in AI โ building agent systems that power conversational experiences and auto-generate shoppable content at scale.
Facebook (Meta)
2014 โ 2019
โ๏ธ My first real job out of school โ and my first time on the West Coast! I interned here in the summer of 2014 and never looked back. Bye NYC winters, hello California sunshine and burritos.
๐ฌ I landed on the Goodwill team โ the people behind those Friendversary videos, Friends Day, and the seasonal greetings in your News Feed. If you've ever seen a "Celebrate your friendship!" video on Facebook, that was us.
๐ก๏ธ I also worked on trust & safety and business identity systems โ figuring out how to keep people safe while making it easy for businesses to exist across Facebook's products.
๐คฃ Fun fact: my intern project โ QR codes friending on Facebook โ is somehow still alive 12 years later. Someone even made a YouTube tutorial about it in 2025!
Columbia University
M.S. Computer Science
New York City โ one and a half intense years of CS, my first real encounter with machine learning, and way too much dollar pizza. ๐ฝ
Peking University
B.S. Electrical Engineering
Beijing โ where it all started. Studied electrical engineering, and somehow ended up writing software for a living. ๐๏ธ
Featured work
Journeys
A conversational Pinterest AI companion app that helps you plan, shop, and get inspired through natural dialogue. It can search Pinterest, find shoppable products, edit images, and guide you through multi-step tasks โ all in a chat interface with built-in safety guardrails. Think ChatGPT meets visual discovery.
Auto Collages
AI that turns product catalogs into beautiful, shoppable collages in minutes. It groups products into outfit ideas, trending looks, and curated collections โ then distributes them across Pinterest. People love them so much they save them at 2ร the rate of regular Pins โ and now advertisers love them too.
Shuffles โ Collages
A collage-making app that lets you cut out objects from any image, layer them into mood boards, and share them as interactive, shoppable content. It blew up on TikTok, hit #1 Lifestyle app on the App Store, and evolved into a core Pinterest format โ collages now get 3ร the engagement of traditional Pins.
Frontseat & Pinterest TV
Live shopping meets the creator economy. Pinterest TV is a series of live, shoppable video shows โ think QVC reimagined for the Pinterest generation. Frontseat is the standalone app that powers it all: multi-camera livestreaming, real-time chat, tipping, and one-tap purchasing, all in one place.
๐ฐ Press Coverage
Admin History Store
A single source of truth for every trust & safety action across Pinterest โ every review, every enforcement decision, every appeal, all in one place. It replaced a patchwork of disconnected systems with a unified data layer that powers real-time enforcement, ML training, analytics dashboards, and audit trails. It also powers Pinterest's public Transparency Report.
Goodwill & Friends Day
The system behind those personalized "Friendversary" and "Year in Review" videos that show up in your Facebook feed โ auto-generated from your posts, photos, likes, and friendship history. I also built Cultural Moments and Daily Greetings โ animated seasonal cards that appeared atop the News Feed for hundreds of millions of people.
Life outside the editor
Go Player
National Youth Champion ๐
I've played Go (ๅดๆฃ) since I was a kid. It's the oldest board game still played in its original form โ 4,000+ years and counting. I was national youth champion back in the day, though I don't play much anymore.
These days I also teach Go part-time at the SF Go Club. There's something deeply satisfying about watching someone have their first "aha" moment on the board. If you're in SF and curious, come say hi!
With Go legends Rui Naiwei (่ฎไนไผ) & Jiang Zhujiu (ๆฑ้ธไน ) ๐
Learning to skate
New hobby, new bruises
Got hooked on ice skating after watching the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics โ something about it just clicked. Now I'm out on the ice whenever I can. Still very much a beginner, but getting better one fall at a time. ๐
Random facts about me
- ๐งธMy favorite Pop Mart series is Twinkle Twinkle โ so cute! ๐ฅน
- ๐Based in San Francisco. The fog, the burritos, the AI passion โ I love it all.
Let's connect
I'm always open to discussing AI systems, product engineering, and interesting technical challenges. Feel free to reach out!
Say Hello โ๏ธ