# Jon Portella

> Senior Software Engineer at Pinterest. Full-stack with a front-end web focus. Based in Toronto, Canada.

## About

Jon Portella is a Senior Software Engineer at Pinterest, working on the Product Experience team. He builds front-end web features and infrastructure used by Pinterest's 500M+ monthly active users, and occasionally does iOS work. Before Pinterest, he was a Full Stack Engineer at Curelator (digital health) and an instructor at Codeworks coding bootcamp. He originally studied audiovisual communication and worked in video production and sound engineering before switching to software.

## What he works on

- Front-end web development at Pinterest scale (React, TypeScript, GraphQL, Relay)
- Feed and grid layout systems, including the first-ever multi-column module in Pinterest's Masonry grid
- GenAI-powered user features - built the AI content tuner that was covered by The Verge
- Shopping features - GPT-powered shopping modules, search filters, product pages across web and iOS
- Internal developer tools - won internal hackathons for tools that improved debugging and experimentation workflows
- Documentation - won best documentation award at Pinterest's company-wide docathon
- Mentoring - teaches, mentors junior engineers, previously taught at a coding bootcamp

## Key projects at Pinterest

### Multi-column Masonry modules
Every element in the Pinterest grid had always been exactly one column wide. Jon worked with the web platform team to ship the first 2-column module, which required rethinking the layout algorithm's whitespace handling. This opened the door for dozens of multi-column experiences that came after.

### GenAI interests tuner
Users wanted control over AI-generated content in their feeds. Jon built a tuner tool that balanced user simplicity with meaningful signal to the ranking systems. It was well received and covered by The Verge.

### Pinterest Predicts landing pages
Annual trend report landing pages that get significant media attention. Built the 2025 and 2026 editions.

### Pin Peek
A desktop hover interaction Jon conceived, designed, and built independently - pins scale and tilt when you hold Z and hover.

### Shopping infrastructure
GPT-powered shopping modules on search and related pins, shopping search filters (price, brand, merchant, sale), product detail pages across web and iOS.

## Notable achievements

- Pinterest Makeathon 1st Prize (Internal Tools, August 2025)
- Pinterest Docathon 1st Prize (Best Documentation, November 2024)
- Pinterest Makeathon 2nd Prize (Internal Tools, November 2024)
- Promoted from Mid-Senior to Senior Software Engineer at Pinterest
- Facebook Pre Community Challenge 2nd Prize (Hackathon, 2018)

## Writing

Jon writes about web development, system design, and engineering on his blog at https://jonportella.com/blog.

## Links

- Website: https://jonportella.com
- Timeline / Resume: https://jonportella.com/timeline
- Blog: https://jonportella.com/blog
- GitHub: https://github.com/jportella93
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jonportella
- Email: jportella93@gmail.com