Staff Software Engineer, Core

Descript•San Francisco, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are building the next-generation AI-powered platform and web application for easy and fast creation of audio and video content. Growing this revolutionary product involves unique technical challenges and requires solving hard and complex problems. The Core Team builds features to help our users find each other and use Descript to create and communicate their ideas with the world. We own critical systems ancillary to the business, such as access control, team management, project organization, usage tracking, payments, and more. We are looking for a Staff full-stack software Engineer to help us expand these foundational systems.

Requirements

Full-stack product engineer. It’s ok if you don’t love CSS, but you should be comfortable integrating and debugging functionality and logic end to end and think about systems holistically.
Strategic decision making and ability to push back on unnecessary complexity or scope creep to deliver projects with multi-milestone deliverables
Experience to bring forth proven industry practices that fit well with our tech stack and business needs
Well versed in web development and associated devtools
Technologies: Typescript, REST API development, relational DBs
Track record evolving and re-architecting complex systems to accommodate growth while maintaining stability
Comfortable walking off the beaten path, at the edge of systems
Competent thinking about security risks & mitigations
Experience integrating 3rd party services
Strong at testing and debugging
Solid collaboration and communication
Growth mindset

Nice To Haves

AI curious: You've explored AI tools, recognize them as useful for specific situations, and know how to use them effectively while acknowledging their limitations
Experience building account management features such as Invite flows, domain discovery, team management
Enterprise features like audit logs, SSO and SCIM
Opinions/experience with authz at scale: roles, permissions, RBAC, FGA

Responsibilities

Set the technical direction for Descript’s identity model, paving clear paths that will guide all teams to build features such that it scales coherently to the next level
Lead large multi-quarter initiatives by collaborating with cross-functional partners, creating clarity out of ambiguity, and mediating technical disagreements in a way that balances speed and correctness
Own building and shipping features across all levels of the stack (frontend and backend), writing high-quality testable code that's functional, long term maintainable and performant
Influence the strategy and roadmap by proactively identifying and recommending high ROI areas to invest in.
Keep tabs on org-wide technical strategy as well as industry best practices, spreading that information for the benefit of all.
Mentor other Engineers and advise teams on architecture and quality