Scribd, Inc.
Senior Backend Engineer (Python + Distributed systems)
Scribd, Inc., San Diego, California, United States, 92189
About The Company
At Scribd (pronounced “scribbed”), our mission is to spark human curiosity. Join our team as we create a world of stories and knowledge, democratize the exchange of ideas and information, and empower collective expertise through our products: Everand, Scribd, Slideshare, and Fable. We support a culture where employees can be real and bold, debate and commit, and prioritize the customer. We balance individual flexibility with community connections through Scribd Flex, allowing flexible work style and intentional in‑person moments. We hire for GRIT—setting and achieving goals, results, innovative ideas, and positive influence.
About The Team The ML Data Engineering team powers metadata extraction, enrichment, and content understanding across all Scribd brands. We process hundreds of millions of documents, billions of images, and deliver high‑quality metadata to enable content discovery and trust for millions of users worldwide. Our systems operate at scale, supporting diverse datasets such as user‑generated content, ebooks, and audiobooks. We work at the intersection of machine learning, data engineering, and distributed systems, collaborating with applied research and product teams to deploy scalable ML & LLM‑powered solutions.
Role Overview We’re seeking a Senior Software Engineer with deep experience building event‑driven, distributed, and scalable systems in Python. In this role, you’ll design and optimize large‑scale data and service pipelines on AWS, supporting Scribd’s content enrichment and metadata systems. You’ll work closely with cross‑functional teams to design reliable backend services that integrate machine learning models and LLM components when needed. This role offers the opportunity to work on generative AI and metadata enrichment problems at a truly global scale.
Tech Stack Python, AWS Lambda, ECS, SQS, ElastiCache, Airflow, Spark, Databricks, Terraform, Datadog.
Key Responsibilities
Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to engineers across the organization, driving secure coding best practices.
Lead the design, implementation, and scaling of event‑driven, distributed systems to extract, enrich, and process metadata from large‑scale document and media datasets.
Partner with Data Science, Infrastructure, ML Engineering, and Product teams to architect and deliver robust systems that balance scalability, high performance, and rapid iteration.
Contribute to the team’s engineering strategy, identifying gaps, proposing new initiatives, and improving existing frameworks.
Build and maintain scalable APIs and backend services for high‑throughput content processing.
Leverage AWS services (ECS, Lambda, SQS, ElastiCache, CloudWatch) to design and deploy resilient, high‑performance systems.
Optimize and refactor existing backend systems for scalability, reliability, and performance.
Ensure system health and data integrity through monitoring, observability, and automated testing.
Requirements
7+ years of professional software engineering experience with a focus on backend or distributed systems development.
Strong proficiency in Python (5+ years). Experience with Scala is a plus.
Expertise in designing and architecting large‑scale event‑driven and distributed systems.
Strong cloud expertise with AWS services (ECS, Lambda, SQS, SNS, CloudWatch, etc.).
Experience with infrastructure‑as‑code tools like Terraform.
Solid understanding of system performance, profiling, and optimization.
Experience leading technical projects and mentoring engineers.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent professional experience.
Bonus: Familiarity with data processing frameworks (Spark, Databricks) and workflow orchestration tools.
Bonus: Experience integrating ML or LLM‑based models into production systems.
Compensation San Francisco: $146,500 – $228,000 (USD). Outside California: $120,000 – $217,000. Canada: $153,000 CAD – $202,000 CAD. Eligible for competitive equity and comprehensive benefits.
Work Location Employees must have their primary residence in or near the following cities:
United States: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Houston, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C.
Canada: Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver.
Mexico: Mexico City.
Benefits, Perks, And Wellbeing At Scribd
Healthcare Insurance Coverage (Medical/Dental/Vision): 100% paid.
12 weeks paid parental leave.
Short‑term/long‑term disability plans.
401k/RSP matching.
Onboarding stipend for home office peripherals.
Learning & Development allowance.
Quarterly stipend for Wellness, WiFi, etc.
Mental Health support & resources.
Free subscription to Scribd Inc. suite of products.
Referral Bonuses.
Book Benefit.
Sabbaticals.
Company‑wide events.
Team engagement budgets.
Vacation & Personal Days.
Paid Holidays (+ winter break).
Flexible Sick Time.
Volunteer Day.
Company‑wide Employee Resource Groups and programs that foster an inclusive and diverse workplace.
Access to AI Tools: free access to best‑in‑class AI tools.
Seniority level
Mid‑Senior level
Employment type
Full‑time
Job function
Engineering and Information Technology
Software Development
Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Scribd, Inc. by 2x.
We want our interview process to be accessible to everyone. You can inform us of any reasonable adjustments we can make to better accommodate your needs by emailing accommodations@scribd.com. Scribd is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage people of all backgrounds to apply, and believe that a diversity of perspectives and experiences create a foundation for the best ideas. Come join us in building something meaningful.
#J-18808-Ljbffr
About The Team The ML Data Engineering team powers metadata extraction, enrichment, and content understanding across all Scribd brands. We process hundreds of millions of documents, billions of images, and deliver high‑quality metadata to enable content discovery and trust for millions of users worldwide. Our systems operate at scale, supporting diverse datasets such as user‑generated content, ebooks, and audiobooks. We work at the intersection of machine learning, data engineering, and distributed systems, collaborating with applied research and product teams to deploy scalable ML & LLM‑powered solutions.
Role Overview We’re seeking a Senior Software Engineer with deep experience building event‑driven, distributed, and scalable systems in Python. In this role, you’ll design and optimize large‑scale data and service pipelines on AWS, supporting Scribd’s content enrichment and metadata systems. You’ll work closely with cross‑functional teams to design reliable backend services that integrate machine learning models and LLM components when needed. This role offers the opportunity to work on generative AI and metadata enrichment problems at a truly global scale.
Tech Stack Python, AWS Lambda, ECS, SQS, ElastiCache, Airflow, Spark, Databricks, Terraform, Datadog.
Key Responsibilities
Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to engineers across the organization, driving secure coding best practices.
Lead the design, implementation, and scaling of event‑driven, distributed systems to extract, enrich, and process metadata from large‑scale document and media datasets.
Partner with Data Science, Infrastructure, ML Engineering, and Product teams to architect and deliver robust systems that balance scalability, high performance, and rapid iteration.
Contribute to the team’s engineering strategy, identifying gaps, proposing new initiatives, and improving existing frameworks.
Build and maintain scalable APIs and backend services for high‑throughput content processing.
Leverage AWS services (ECS, Lambda, SQS, ElastiCache, CloudWatch) to design and deploy resilient, high‑performance systems.
Optimize and refactor existing backend systems for scalability, reliability, and performance.
Ensure system health and data integrity through monitoring, observability, and automated testing.
Requirements
7+ years of professional software engineering experience with a focus on backend or distributed systems development.
Strong proficiency in Python (5+ years). Experience with Scala is a plus.
Expertise in designing and architecting large‑scale event‑driven and distributed systems.
Strong cloud expertise with AWS services (ECS, Lambda, SQS, SNS, CloudWatch, etc.).
Experience with infrastructure‑as‑code tools like Terraform.
Solid understanding of system performance, profiling, and optimization.
Experience leading technical projects and mentoring engineers.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent professional experience.
Bonus: Familiarity with data processing frameworks (Spark, Databricks) and workflow orchestration tools.
Bonus: Experience integrating ML or LLM‑based models into production systems.
Compensation San Francisco: $146,500 – $228,000 (USD). Outside California: $120,000 – $217,000. Canada: $153,000 CAD – $202,000 CAD. Eligible for competitive equity and comprehensive benefits.
Work Location Employees must have their primary residence in or near the following cities:
United States: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Houston, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C.
Canada: Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver.
Mexico: Mexico City.
Benefits, Perks, And Wellbeing At Scribd
Healthcare Insurance Coverage (Medical/Dental/Vision): 100% paid.
12 weeks paid parental leave.
Short‑term/long‑term disability plans.
401k/RSP matching.
Onboarding stipend for home office peripherals.
Learning & Development allowance.
Quarterly stipend for Wellness, WiFi, etc.
Mental Health support & resources.
Free subscription to Scribd Inc. suite of products.
Referral Bonuses.
Book Benefit.
Sabbaticals.
Company‑wide events.
Team engagement budgets.
Vacation & Personal Days.
Paid Holidays (+ winter break).
Flexible Sick Time.
Volunteer Day.
Company‑wide Employee Resource Groups and programs that foster an inclusive and diverse workplace.
Access to AI Tools: free access to best‑in‑class AI tools.
Seniority level
Mid‑Senior level
Employment type
Full‑time
Job function
Engineering and Information Technology
Software Development
Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Scribd, Inc. by 2x.
We want our interview process to be accessible to everyone. You can inform us of any reasonable adjustments we can make to better accommodate your needs by emailing accommodations@scribd.com. Scribd is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage people of all backgrounds to apply, and believe that a diversity of perspectives and experiences create a foundation for the best ideas. Come join us in building something meaningful.
#J-18808-Ljbffr