Staff Backend Engineer, Content Library (Rust)

Apply; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 145,000 - 262,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Scribd Flex (flexible work model)

Health, dental, and vision coverage

Mental health support and disability

Generous PTO and sabbaticals

Retirement matching and equity

Learning and development programs

Wellness and home office stipends

Complimentary access to Scribd suite

Enterprise AI tools access

Job summary

Scribd, Inc. is seeking a senior backend engineer to own and evolve the Content Library and Core Infrastructure. You will design Rust services, implement scalable storage and retrieval paths, and collaborate with ML, search, product, and data teams to balance performance and cost.

You will also mentor engineers and contribute to developer tooling, governance, and security. The role emphasizes end-to-end ownership, with a focus on scalable, low-latency systems and a strong Python userland.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Production experience with Rust and strong Python proficiency.
• Deep understanding of storage and data fundamentals (S3, Parquet/Arrow).
• Experience designing high-throughput, low-latency services.
• Leadership and mentoring across teams.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate Content Library's core Rust services at scale.
• Own features end-to-end from design to production operations.
• Evolve the Python userland and support engineers who build on the platform.
• Lead cross-functional projects with ML, search, product, and data teams.
• Drive performance and cost-efficiency across the stack.
• Strengthen governance: data lineage, access controls, deletion propagation.
• Raise engineering bar through mentorship and design reviews.

Skills

Rust

Python

Systems design

Tools

AWS

Terraform

PostgreSQL

S3

DataFusion

Parquet

Arrow

Job description

Scribd, Inc. is seeking a senior backend engineer to own and evolve the Content Library and Core Infrastructure. You will design Rust services, implement scalable storage and retrieval paths, and collaborate with ML, search, product, and data teams to balance performance and cost.

You will also mentor engineers and contribute to developer tooling, governance, and security. The role emphasizes end-to-end ownership, with a focus on scalable, low-latency systems and a strong Python userland.