Senior Backend Engineer; Python

Senior Backend Engineer (Python + Distributed systems)

Scribd, Inc.

At Scribd (pronounced “scribbed”), our mission is to spark human curiosity. Our four products—Everand, Scribd, Slideshare, and Fable—provide a world of stories and knowledge, democratize the exchange of ideas and information, and empower collective expertise. We cultivate a culture where employees can be authentic, bold, and collaborative, with a focus on customer prioritization and intentional in‑person moments through Scribd Flex.

The ML Data Engineering team powers metadata extraction, enrichment, and content understanding across all Scribd brands. We process hundreds of millions of documents and billions of images to deliver high‑quality metadata that drives content discovery for millions of users worldwide. Our systems operate at massive scale, supporting UGC, ebooks, audio books, and more, and we collaborate closely with research and product teams to deploy scalable ML and LLM‑powered solutions.

We’re seeking a Senior Software Engineer with deep experience building event‑driven, distributed, and scalable systems in Python. You will design and optimize large‑scale data and service pipelines on AWS, support Scribd’s content enrichment and metadata systems, and partner with cross‑functional teams to integrate machine learning models and LLM components. This role offers an opportunity to work on cutting‑edge generative AI and metadata enrichment problems at a truly global scale.

Python, AWS Lambda, ECS, SQS, Elasti Cache, Airflow, Spark, Databricks, Terraform, Datadog.

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship across the organization, advocating secure coding best practices.
• Design, implement, and scale event‑driven, distributed systems for large‑scale metadata extraction and enrichment.
• Partner with Data Science, Infrastructure, ML Engineering, and Product teams to deliver robust, scalable systems.
• Contribute to engineering strategy, identify gaps, propose initiatives, and improve frameworks.
• Build and maintain scalable APIs and backend services for high‑throughput content processing.
• Design and deploy resilient, high‑performance systems using AWS services (ECS, Lambda, SQS, Elasti Cache, Cloud Watch).
• Optimize and refactor existing backend systems for scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Ensure system health and data integrity through monitoring, observability, and automated testing.

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience focusing on backend or distributed systems.
• Strong proficiency in Python (5+ years). Experience with Scala is a plus.
• Expertise in designing large‑scale event‑driven and distributed systems.
• Strong cloud expertise with AWS services (ECS, Lambda, SQS, SNS, Cloud Watch, 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.

Our base pay is part of a total compensation package and varies by location and level. For San Francisco, California the range is $146,500 to $228,000. Outside California the range is $120,000 to $217,000. In Canada it ranges from $153,000 CAD to $202,000 CAD. This position is eligible for a competitive equity ownership and comprehensive benefits.

• Healthcare Insurance coverage (Medical/Dental/Vision) fully paid for employees.
• 12 weeks paid parental leave.
• Short‑term and long‑term disability plans.
• 401(k)/RSP matching.
• Home‑office onboarding stipend.
• Learning & Development allowance and programs.
• Quarterly stipend for wellness, Wi‑Fi, etc.
• Mental health support & resources.
• Free subscription to Scribd products.
• Referral bonuses.
• Book benefits.
• Sabbaticals.
• Team engagement budgets and company‑wide events.
• Vacation & personal days, paid holidays.
• Flexible sick time and volunteer day.
• Employee Resource…