Senior Backend Engineer

Cantos Ventures; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salaries

Comprehensive healthcare benefits

Equity in a hyper growth startup

Flexible PTO

401k

Parental Leave

Commuter Benefits (SF office employees)

WFH Stipend

Job summary

Cantos Ventures is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to join their Core Engineering Team to improve essential document workflows. You will build backend features and optimize performance within the Django monolith, working across teams to enhance user experiences.

Ideal candidates have 5+ years of backend experience, are proficient in Python, and advocate for best engineering practices. The position offers a competitive salary between $175,000 and $200,000, along with equity and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend development experience.
• Strong Python coding skills.
• Experience with database performance optimization.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship backend features in the Django monolith.
• Optimize database queries and caching layers.
• Collaborate with teams to deliver reliable experiences.

Skills

Experience building backend applications at high scale

Extensive experience with Python

Optimizing endpoint performance and database queries

Automated testing advocacy

Implementing engineering best practices

Tools

Django

PostgreSQL

Redis

Celery + AmazonMQ

Terraform (AWS)

Job description

About this role

We’re looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join our Core Engineering Team, which powers some of the most essential experiences at Scribe: document viewing and editing, embedding and exporting content, and supporting key integrations. Millions of users rely on these workflows every day.

In this role, you’ll take ownership of impactful projects — from evolving critical document features to building new greenfield systems — and collaborate across the stack to deliver high-quality product experiences. As a backend engineer, you’ll bring depth to our systems, influence technical discussions, and help raise the bar for engineering excellence within the team.

What you’ll do

• Build and ship backend features in our Django monolith, spanning core document workflows (viewing, editing, embeds, exports) as well as new greenfield projects that expand what Scribe can do
• Improve performance and reliability by optimizing database queries, endpoints, and caching layers across critical user workflows
• Collaborate with product managers, designers, and frontend engineers to deliver intuitive and reliable experiences at scale
• Contribute to technical discussions within the team, balancing short-term delivery with longer-term architectural evolution
• Uphold strong engineering practices through thoughtful code reviews, solid test coverage, and attention to observability and performance

What we’re looking for

• You have 5+ years of experience building backend applications at high scale and availability
• You have extensive experience with Python
• You know how to optimize endpoint performance and database queries
• You’re a strong advocate for automated testing
• You’ve seen and can implement engineering best practices
• You’re user‑centric, empathetic, and passionate about your work

Bonus

• Experience with Django (not required, but a big plus)
• Startup experience (not required, but we build and move fast!)

Tech Stack

• Python + Django
• PostgreSQL
• Redis
• Celery + AmazonMQ
• Infrastructure in Terraform (AWS)

Benefits

• Some of the nicest and smartest teammates you’ll ever work with
• Competitive salaries
• Comprehensive healthcare benefits
• Equity in a hyper growth startup
• Flexible PTO
• 401k
• Parental Leave
• Commuter Benefits (SF office employees)
• WFH Stipend

Compensation

$175,000 - $200,000 base + Equity + Benefits. We consider several factors when determining compensation, including location, experience, and other job‑related factors.

At Scribe, we celebrate our differences and are committed to creating a workplace where all employees feel supported and empowered to do their best work. We believe this benefits not only our employees but our product, customers, and community as well. Scribe is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.