Staff Software Engineer (Backend) - Fable Core

Scribd, Inc.; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Scribd Flex (flexible work model)

Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage

Mental health support and disability coverage

Generous paid time off

Paid parental leave and family support benefits

Retirement matching and employee equity

Learning and development programs

Wellness and home office stipends

Complimentary access to Scribd products

Job summary

Scribd, Inc. is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for the Fable Core team in Seattle. You will set the technical direction for the backend, ensuring reliability and health of the platform that powers Fable. This role requires over 10 years of backend experience, particularly with Python/Django, as well as strong collaboration skills. Scribd offers a flexible work model, comprehensive benefits including health coverage, generous paid time off, and professional development opportunities. Join us in shaping the future of reading!

Qualifications

• 10+ years of backend experience including meaningful time in Python/Django.
• Experience operating production systems on a major cloud environment.
• A track record of owning incidents end-to-end.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction for the Fable backend.
• Own backend reliability and platform health.
• Lead incident response and drive durable post-mortems.

Skills

Backend experience

Python/Django

Production systems

Cross-functional collaboration

Systems instinct

Tools

Kubernetes

AWS

GCP

Job description

Scribd, Inc. is on a mission to advance human understanding. Our four products — Scribd®, Slideshare®, Everand™, and Fable — help billions of people across the globe move beyond access and into insight, application, and expertise.

We support a culture where employees can be real and bold, debate and commit, and embrace plot twists. Every employee is empowered to take action as we prioritize the customer. Scribd Flex empowers flexible workstyles and locations, with occasional in-person attendance required for all employees regardless of location.

About The Role

Fable Core is the backend, infrastructure, and platform team behind Fable – a social reading product now part of Scribd, Inc. The Fable app has often been featured in the App Store as both App Of The Day and in the Essential Book Apps list. As a Staff Software Engineer on the Fable Core team, you will set technical direction for the Fable backend and own the reliability and health of the platform that powers the product. You will partner with product, design, ML, and infrastructure teams to turn ambiguous product intent into durable backend systems, lead incident response end‑to‑end, and raise the ceiling for the team through design leadership and mentorship. The stack includes Python/Django, Postgres, Kubernetes, Datadog, GCP and AWS.

What You’ll Do

• Set technical direction for the Fable backend – write and socialize technical design documents, drive architecture reviews, and turn ambiguous product intent into concrete backend design.
• Own backend reliability and platform health, including staging, CI/CD, databases, queues, cost, and observability.
• Lead incident response and drive durable post‑mortems – write the doc, run the meeting, and ensure action items ship.
• Be the Fable backend voice in cross‑team planning and the glue in cross‑functional execution.
• Raise the ceiling for the team through PR review, mentorship, pairing, and by setting a high bar on design, testing, and ops.
• Build and evolve the Fable backend platform so the team can ship faster and more safely.
• Bring agentic engineering practices into the team’s day‑to‑day work and help the team adopt them effectively.

We’re Looking for Someone With

• 10+ years of backend experience, including meaningful time in Python/Django and at least one other stack (Go, Node, Java/Kotlin, or similar).
• Experience operating production systems on a major cloud – OLTP databases at scale, container orchestration, queueing, and CI/CD.
• A track record of owning incidents end‑to‑end, including the follow‑through.
• The ability to write a TDD that a staff peer trusts and a product lead can understand, and to turn ambiguous product intent into concrete backend design.
• Strong cross‑functional collaboration skills – you hold your own with senior PM, design, and ML partners, and you care more about the system landing than about being right.
• A pragmatic default paired with a strong systems instinct – you look for root causes, not symptoms.
• Hands‑on experience with agentic engineering tools and workflows in a real production setting.

Nice to Have

• Experience with subscription and entitlements systems (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store / Play billing).
• Experience leading a platform or infra function through a migration (on‑prem → cloud, AWS GCP, monolith → services, or similar).
• Experience working alongside ML teams on recommendation or feed systems.

Benefits At Scribd, Inc.

• 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, Inc. suite of products
• Enterprise access to leading AI tools

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.

We want our interview process to be accessible to everyone. You can inform us of any reasonable adjustments we can make to better accommodate your needs by emailing [e-mail] about the need for adjustments at any point in the interview process.