Lead Product Manager, Recommendations

About Scribd, Inc.

Scribd, Inc. is committed to enhancing human insight through its suite of products including Scribd®, Slideshare®, Everand™, and Fable, reaching billions globally by transforming access into actionable knowledge.

Our culture values authenticity and courage; we engage in dynamic discussions, adapt to change, and empower each employee to prioritize the customer experience. Our flexible working model, Scribd Flex, balances personal autonomy and essential community interaction, requiring occasional onsite presence regardless of location.

We embrace "GRIT" as our core hiring principle — a blend of passion and resilience driving goal setting, results delivery, innovation, and collaborative teamwork.

Role Overview

The Lead Product Manager for Recommendations will be responsible for Scribd's recommendations platform, influencing discovery for 200 million monthly users across 300 million documents. This role merges machine learning with product strategy to deliver precise, personalized content recommendations.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and own a long-term strategic roadmap for recommendations across candidate generation, ranking, and result presentation, ensuring users find relevant documents throughout their journey.
• Collaborate closely with ML engineering and applied research teams to bring advanced retrieval and ranking algorithms into production, combining collaborative filters, embeddings, and real-time behavioral insights for superior personalization.
• Identify and track critical metrics such as engagement, click-through rates, content completion, and subscription conversion/retention to measure recommendation effectiveness.
• Balance tactical improvements that meet revenue objectives with building a scalable recommendations platform aligned with Scribd's three-year AI vision.
• Integrate diverse data sources including experiments, analytics, user feedback, and interviews into prioritization and feature design decisions.
• Effectively communicate with and align cross-functional stakeholders—product, engineering, design, content, and executives—by clearly defining requirements, schedules, deliverables, and impact.

Candidate Qualifications

• Over eight years of product management experience, including at least four years leading recommendation or search products in environments with high user traffic.
• Proven track record of delivering machine learning-driven features that significantly influence key business metrics such as engagement, conversion, or revenue at scale.
• Strong expertise with retrieval and ranking algorithms, embeddings, feature stores, and the capacity to analyze holistic user journeys for varied user groups.
• Adept at navigating ambiguity by setting multi-year visions, aligning cross-functional teams, and generating progressive achievements.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with experience preparing product briefs and presenting data-supported decisions to senior leadership.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a similar technical field, or equivalent professional experience.

Desirable Skills

• Hands-on experience with AI productivity and analytics tools, including large language model-powered workflows, SQL copilots, and data exploration utilities for rapid prototyping and hypothesis testing.
• Exposure to designing discovery experiences enhanced by large language models and generative AI, delivering personalized and task-specific value beyond typical recommendations.
• Familiarity with contemporary machine learning operations (ML ops) tools.

Compensation and Location

Salary varies by geography and experience, with ranges in Canada between CAD 179,000 and CAD 228,000. This role qualifies for competitive equity packages and comprehensive benefits.

Workplace and Eligibility

This position requires residence in or near certain eligible metro areas including Ottawa, Toronto, or Vancouver in Canada.

Benefits

• Flexible work arrangement under the Scribd Flex model
• Inclusive healthcare plans covering medical, dental, and vision
• Support for mental health and disability
• Generous paid time off including holidays and sabbaticals
• Parental leave and family support
• Retirement matching and stock equity opportunities
• Professional development and continuous learning programs
• Wellness and home office funding
• Free access to Scribd's product suite and enterprise AI tools

Diversity and Accessibility

Scribd is an equal opportunity employer valuing diverse perspectives. We strive to make the interview process accessible and accommodate candidates' needs upon request.