Senior Software Engineer, Web API Platform

Senior Software Engineer, Web API Platform

Join to apply for the Senior Software Engineer, Web API Platform role at Scribd, Inc.

This posting reflects an approved, open position within the organization.

At Scribd Inc. (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 four products:
Everand, Scribd, Slideshare, and Fable.

We support a culture where our employees can be real and be bold; where we debate and commit as we embrace plot twists; and where every employee is empowered to take action as we prioritize the customer. Scribd Flex allows employees to choose their daily work style in partnership with their manager; occasional in-person attendance is required for all Scribd Inc.

employees, regardless of location.

We hire for “GRIT” — goals, results, innovation, and teamwork. The Web Platform team supports our broader Web Modernization efforts and provides a scalable API foundation to reduce coupling, improve developer experience, and establish durable integration patterns between frontend experiences and backend systems.

We are hiring a Senior Software Engineer, Web API Platform to help establish a company-wide API platform that accelerates web modernization at Scribd.

You will design, build, and own new product-facing web APIs that span our full web product surface across Scribd and Everand. These APIs will serve as the primary interface between modern web applications and existing backend systems, enabling teams to evolve toward more scalable, maintainable frontend architectures with confidence.

Today, our web product relies on fragmented data access patterns and lacks standardized APIs and tooling. This role offers the opportunity to design APIs with clear contracts, predictable performance, and strong observability, improving developer experience and enabling teams to ship faster and more safely.

This team will be the primary owner of product-facing web APIs. As the platform matures, the Web Platform team will design, implement, and maintain the majority of new web APIs, while providing a stable foundation that other teams can integrate with and extend when appropriate.

You will work closely with frontend and backend teams to define integration patterns, guide API usage, and ensure the platform scales with real-world data volumes and access patterns.

Key Attributes

• Strong ownership mindset, owning API design and implementation from initial design through production, iteration, and long-term maintenance.
• Pragmatic approach to system design, balancing ideal architecture with real-world constraints.
• Ability to design performance-aware APIs with intentional constraints that scale safely.
• Strong collaborator who works with frontend & backend teams toward better performance and integration outcomes.
• Long-term perspective on maintainability, extensibility, and developer experience.

Experience We Value

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong backend or platform focus.
• Proven experience designing APIs for high-volume or data-intensive product workflows.
• Experience implementing and integrating APIs with a Ruby on Rails application.
• Familiarity with modern API paradigms (REST, Graph
  
  QL, gRPC), including their performance and operational tradeoffs.
• Experience with query patterns, caching, pagination, and common performance pitfalls.
• Experience designing APIs with explicit contracts, versioning, and testing strategies.
• Experience working with modern web frontends (e.g., React, Next.js, or similar).
• Strong communication skills and experience championing API design across teams.
• Hands-on experience incorporating AI-assisted tools into development workflows (e.g., debugging, testing, documentation, or design exploration).

What Sets You Apart

• You’ve designed APIs where performance characteristics were explicit and intentional, not accidental.
• You consider observability, failure modes, and system health as part of API design, not afterthoughts.
• You’re comfortable placing thoughtful…