Software Engineer - Backend (Python)
About The Position
Scribd, Inc. is seeking a Software Engineer II with deep experience building event-driven, distributed, and scalable systems in Python. In this role, you will design and optimize large-scale data and service pipelines running on AWS, supporting Scribd’s content enrichment and metadata systems. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to design reliable backend services that integrate machine learning models and LLM-based components when needed. This role offers the opportunity to work on cutting-edge generative AI and metadata enrichment problems at a truly global scale. The ML Data Engineering team powers metadata extraction, enrichment, and content understanding across all Scribd brands. They process hundreds of millions of documents, billions of images, and deliver high-quality metadata to enable content discovery and trust for millions of users worldwide. Their systems operate at massive scale, supporting diverse datasets like user-generated content (UGC), ebooks, audiobooks, and more. They work at the intersection of machine learning, data engineering, and distributed systems, collaborating closely with applied research and product teams to deploy scalable ML and LLM-powered solutions in production.
Requirements
- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience on Python or distributed systems development.
- Strong proficiency in Python (3+ years).
- Proven experience designing and building event-driven, distributed, and scalable systems.
- Hands-on experience with AWS services (ECS, Lambda, SQS, SNS, CloudWatch, etc.).
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform.
- Solid understanding of system performance, profiling, and optimization.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent professional experience.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with Scala is a plus.
- Familiarity with data processing frameworks (Spark, Databricks) and workflow orchestration tools.
- Experience integrating ML or LLM-based models into production systems.
Responsibilities
- Design and implement event-driven, distributed systems to extract, enrich, and process metadata from large-scale document and media datasets.
- Build and maintain scalable APIs and backend services for high-throughput content processing.
- Leverage AWS services (ECS, Lambda, SQS, ElastiCache, CloudWatch) to design and deploy resilient, high-performance systems.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver backend solutions that power ML-driven features.
- Optimize and refactor existing backend systems for scalability, reliability, and performance.
- Ensure system health and data integrity through monitoring, observability, and automated testing.
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
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
