Senior Backend Engineer, Core Product

Cantos Ventures; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Flexible paid time off and companyhols

401(k)

Paid parental leave

Daily catered lunch (SF office)

Commuter benefits

Home office stipend

Job summary

Scribe is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to join our Core Product Engineering team in San Francisco. You will own backend features across the Django monolith, improve performance, and collaborate with product managers, designers, and frontend engineers to deliver reliable experiences at scale.

Ideal candidates have 5+ years building backend apps, strong Python expertise, and a passion for testing, observability, and engineering best practices in a fast-growing startup environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building backend applications at high scale and availability.
• Extensive experience with Python.
• Ability to optimize endpoint performance and database queries.
• Strong advocate for automated testing.
• Experience implementing engineering best practices.
• You’re user-centric, empathetic, and passionate about your work.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship backend features in our Django monolith across core document workflows and greenfield projects.
• Improve performance and reliability by optimizing database queries, endpoints, and caching layers.
• Collaborate with product managers, designers, and frontend engineers to deliver scalable experiences.
• Contribute to technical discussions, balancing short-term delivery with architectural evolution.
• Uphold strong engineering practices through code reviews, tests, and observability.

Skills

Backend experience

Python

Database optimization

Automated testing

Engineering best practices

User-centric mindset

Tools

Django

PostgreSQL

Redis

Celery

Terraform

AWS

Job description

About Scribe

Scribe is where exceptional people come to do the best work of their careers. More than 94% of the Fortune 500 use Scribe to own their specialized intelligence: the unique way their teams work, decide, and get things done. Our Specialized Intelligence platform automatically captures how work happens and turns it into a living asset that helps people and AI agents do their best work.

We're growing fast, since our founding in 2019, we've grown to 7 million users across 600,000 businesses. Based in San Francisco, we've been named a LinkedIn Top Startup, are valued at over $1 billion, and are backed by leading investors. Join us in our mission to transform how people do work.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join our Core Product 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

Nice to Have

• Experience with Django (not required, but a big plus)




• Startup experience (not required, but we build and move fast!)

Our backend tech stack

• Python + Django




• PostgreSQL




• Redis




• Celery + AmazonMQ




• Infrastructure in Terraform (AWS)

Location

Hybrid. Based in San Francisco. We work from the office 3 days per week.

Compensation

Salary varies by location. All full-time employees receive equity in Scribe. Final offers depend on experience and scope.

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision insurance for you and your dependents




• Flexible paid time off and company holidays




• 401(k)




• Paid parental leave




• Daily catered lunch (SF office)




• Commuter benefits




• Home office stipend

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. Scribe is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.