Staff Software Engineer (Backend) - Everand Core

Scribd, Inc.; Sacramento (CA); Hybrid; USD 171,000 - 267,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Scribd Flex

Health, dental, vision coverage

Mental health support

Generous paid time off

Parental leave

Retirement matching

Learning and development

Wellness stipend

Scribd suite access

AI tools access

Job summary

Scribd, Inc. is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for the Everand Core team to own the backend platform powering Everand’s experiences. You’ll drive architecture, reliability, and performance while collaborating with search, recommendations, web, and ML teams.

You’ll mentor engineers and set a high bar for design, testing, and ops. You will partner with product and design to deliver data-driven, scalable systems that enable experimentation and a unified source of truth across platforms.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in backend engineering and scaling distributed systems.
• Proficiency in at least one modern backend language (Ruby preferred, Scala, Go, or Python).
• Strong focus on reliability, observability, and SLOs; experience with metrics and alerts.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction for the Everand backend and translate product intent into backend design.
• Own backend reliability, CI/CD, databases, queues, and observability.
• Mentor engineers, lead design reviews, and raise the technical bar across the team.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

Ruby (preferred)

Technical leadership

Mentoring

Tools

CI/CD

Job description

Role Overview

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Everand Core team, you’ll help shape the future of how people discover, organize, and enjoy books. You’ll own the backend platform that powers Everand's web and mobile experiences, driving rapid experimentation, discoverability, personalization, and consumption journeys. You’ll collaborate with engineers across search, recommendations, web, and mobile, as well as design and product partners, to align technical decisions with user needs and platform capabilities. You’ll build systems that drive performance, personalization, and reliability, and help shape the technical direction of our backend team.

Key Responsibilities

• Set technical direction for the Everand backend: write and socialize design documents, drive architecture reviews, and translate product intent into concrete backend design.
• Own backend reliability and platform health, including staging, CI/CD, databases, queues, cost, and observability.
• Raise the ceiling for the team through PR review, mentorship, pairing, and by setting a high bar on design, testing, and ops.
• Act as the Everand backend voice in cross-team planning and glue in cross-functional execution.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence while driving scalable, resilient, and observable systems that allow teams to move fast, simplify complexity, and deliver with confidence.
• Modernize legacy systems and eliminate technical debt to improve velocity and scalability.
• Partner with Product, Design, Analytics, and Web, Mobile, and ML Engineers to deliver backend systems that support experimentation and a single source of truth across platforms, using data, metrics, and telemetry to uncover trends, resolve anomalies, and guide the team with clarity and foresight.
• Champion a user‑first mindset, grounding technical decisions in how they enhance the reading and listening experience.

Required Qualifications

• Significant experience in backend engineering, with a strong track record building and scaling distributed systems.
• Write clean, maintainable, and secure code in at least one modern backend language such as Ruby (preferred), Scala, Go, or Python.
• Keen eye for reliability and observability, and care about defining SLOs, implementing metrics and alerts, and debugging distributed systems.
• Proven track record of technical leadership: setting architectural direction, mentoring engineers, and driving large-scale migrations or modernization efforts.
• Thrives in cross-functional collaboration, can hold own with senior PM, design, and ML partners, and values system landing over correctness.
• Enjoys mentoring, knowledge-sharing, and contributing to cross-team initiatives, including architecture review groups and design discussions that shape Scribd's engineering culture.
• Care deeply about users; understands what makes Everand impactful in their daily lives and translates that empathy into the systems built.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong coding ability in Ruby.
• Experience improving reliability, latency, or throughput in large-scale distributed systems.
• Experience working alongside ML teams on recommendation or feed systems.
• Familiarity with experimentation or feature-flagging platforms.

Compensation

• California: $171,000 – $267,000
• Outside California, USA: $141,000 – $254,000
• Canada: $179,000 CAD – $228,500 CAD

Equity and a comprehensive benefits package are also part of the total compensation.

Locations

• United States: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Houston, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C.
• Canada: Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver
• Mexico: Mexico City

Benefits

• Scribd Flex (flexible work model)
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
• Mental health support and disability coverage
• Generous paid time off including vacation, sick time, holidays, winter break, volunteer time, and sabbaticals
• Paid parental leave and family support benefits
• Retirement matching and employee equity
• Learning and development programs and professional growth opportunities
• Wellness and home office stipends
• Complimentary access to the Scribd suite of products
• Enterprise access to leading AI tools

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Scribd, Inc. is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage people of all backgrounds to apply, and believe that a diversity of perspectives and experiences create a foundation for the best ideas. Come join us in building something meaningful.