Staff Software Engineer - Content Library (Rust/Python)

Scribd, Inc.; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 145,000 - 262,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Scribd Flex

Health coverage

Mental health support

Paid time off

Parental leave

Retirement matching

Professional growth

Wellness stipend

Product access

Job summary

Scribd, Inc. is seeking a senior backend engineer to own and operate the Content Library and Core Infrastructure. You will design, build, and run Rust services at scale, shaping features and the platform that powers Scribd®, Slideshare®, Everand™, and Fable.

You will advance the Python userland, mentor engineers, and collaborate with ML, search, product, and data teams to optimize performance, cost, and governance across the stack.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience building backend, distributed, or data-intensive systems.
• Proficient in Rust and Python with production experience.
• Deep understanding of object storage (S3), columnar formats (Parquet/Arrow), and relational databases (PostgreSQL/MySQL).
• Experience designing and operating high-throughput, low-latency services and operating production systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate the Content Library's core Rust services at scale (hundreds of billions of objects).
• Own features end-to-end from design to production operations, including observability and incident response.
• Evolve the Python userland and support cross-team engineers with guidance and APIs.
• Lead cross-functional projects with ML, search, product, and data teams to balance scalability and cost.
• Drive performance and cost-efficiency across the stack (DataFusion, Parquet, S3, caching, PostgreSQL).
• Strengthen governance: data lineage, access controls, and deletion propagation across brands.
• Mentor the team, perform design reviews, and improve the developer experience with AI workflows.

Skills

Rust

Python

Distributed systems

AWS

Leadership

Data governance

High throughput

Observability

Tools

S3

PostgreSQL

Parquet/Arrow

Terraform

DataFusion

Rust tooling

Job description

Scribd, Inc. is seeking a senior backend engineer to own and operate the Content Library and Core Infrastructure. You will design, build, and run Rust services at scale, shaping features and the platform that powers Scribd®, Slideshare®, Everand™, and Fable.

You will advance the Python userland, mentor engineers, and collaborate with ML, search, product, and data teams to optimize performance, cost, and governance across the stack.