Principal Product Manager, Search

Scribd•San Francisco, CA

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

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. Culture at Scribd, Inc. We support a culture where our employees can be real and be bold; where we debate and commit as we embrace plot twists; and where every employee is empowered to take action as we prioritize the customer. We believe the best work happens when individual flexibility is balanced with meaningful community connection. Scribd Flex empowers employees to choose the workstyle and location that support their best performance, while committing to intentional in-person moments that strengthen collaboration and culture. Occasional in-person attendance is required for all Scribd, Inc. employees, regardless of location. So what are we looking for in new team members? At Scribd, Inc., we hire for “GRIT.” Traditionally defined as the intersection of passion and perseverance toward long-term goals, GRIT reflects the mindset we expect from every employee. For us, it also serves as a practical framework for how we work: setting and achieving Goals, delivering Results within your role, contributing Innovative ideas and solutions, and strengthening the broader Team through collaboration and attitude. This posting reflects an approved, open position within the organization.

Requirements

Ability to set and achieve Goals, achieve Results within job responsibilities, contribute Innovative ideas and solutions, and positively influence the broader Team through collaboration and attitude.
Deep technical fluency in ML/AI with seasoned product management chops and a track record of translating data-driven insights into meaningful product wins.
8+ years of product management experience, including 5+ years leading search or recommendations products in a high-traffic consumer environment.
Demonstrated success shipping ML-driven features that moved core business metrics (engagement, conversion, or revenue) for large scale products.
Deep familiarity with retrieval and ranking algorithms, embeddings, and feature stores — paired with the ability to reason about end-to-end customer journeys for distinct user segments.
Track record of thriving amid ambiguity: shaping a multi-year vision, aligning cross-functional teams, and delivering incremental wins along the way.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills — adept at crafting product briefs, bringing in inputs from multiple teams, and presenting data-backed decisions to senior leadership.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).

Nice To Haves

Hands-on proficiency with SQL and a scripting language (Python or R) for rapid data exploration, prototyping, and model evaluation.
Experience designing LLM- and GenAI-enhanced user experiences that go beyond raw chat to deliver task-specific value.
Familiarity with modern ML operations tooling — from vector databases to end-to-end model-ops workflows (MLOps / LLMOps) — and the ability to collaborate with engineering teams that rely on these systems.
Passion for the written word and open knowledge — a genuine drive to build products that democratize expertise and help people learn, teach, and create.

Responsibilities

Set the strategy and drive execution for Scribd's Search team.
Transform our search experience into a best-in-class discovery engine serving 200 million monthly visitors across a corpus of 300 million documents.
Leverage advanced retrieval and ranking algorithms, LLM-powered semantic understanding, and fine-grained behavioral signals to deliver highly relevant search results.
Define a compelling vision for search.
Craft metrics that truly matter for search success.
Experiment to develop breakthrough features that redefine search relevance and discovery.
Chart the long-term search strategy and own a multi-year roadmap spanning query understanding, retrieval, ranking, and results presentation.
Partner with ML Engineering & Applied Research to translate cutting-edge research into production systems.
Define and monitor leading indicators of search success: query success rate, zero-result rate, click-through, and downstream subscription conversion and retention.
Balance short-term wins with long-term vision by shipping incremental relevance improvements and building an extensible search platform aligned with Scribd's 3-year AI strategy.
Synthesize experiment results, query analytics, user interviews, and feedback sessions to inform prioritization and feature design.
Align product, engineering, design, content, and executive stakeholders by clearly articulating requirements, timelines, deliverables, and expected impact.

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