Staff Software Engineer (Backend) - Fable Core

About Scribd, Inc.

Scribd, Inc. is dedicated to advancing human understanding through its four products—Scribd®, Slideshare®, Everand™, and Fable—which collectively serve billions globally by transforming access into deeper insight, application, and expertise.

Culture and Work Environment

The company champions a culture prioritizing authenticity, boldness, and collaborative problem-solving, where every team member is empowered to act with customer focus. Scribd balances individual flexibility with meaningful community connection through its "Scribd Flex" policy, allowing workstyle and location choice alongside regular in-person activities to strengthen culture. All employees, regardless of location, are required to attend occasional onsite meetings.

Role Overview

The Fable Core team develops the backend infrastructure and platform for Fable, a social reading product with over 1 million monthly active users renowned for curated book discovery and social reading habits. The Staff Software Engineer will lead the technical vision for the backend, ensure platform reliability, collaborate cross-functionally, manage incident responses, and foster team growth through mentorship and high standards on system design and operations. This role has significant influence given the team's size and scope.

Technical Environment

Primary technologies include Python/Django, Postgres, Kubernetes, Datadog, and cloud platforms such as GCP and AWS.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish and communicate the technical vision for the Fable backend, creating and guiding architectural designs and translating vague product goals into clear backend implementations.
• Ensure backend platform stability, covering areas like staging environments, continuous integration/deployment pipelines, database management, queue systems, cost controls, and observability solutions.
• Oversee end-to-end incident management, including conducting thorough postmortem analyses and enforcing corrective actions.
• Serve as the principal backend technical liaison in cross-team strategy and execution efforts.
• Mentor colleagues to elevate code quality and operational practices through rigorous code review and design discussions.
• Enhance backend platform tools and processes to accelerate safe and reliable software delivery.
• Integrate agentic engineering methodologies into daily workflows and champion their adoption within the team.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years' experience in backend development, with significant expertise in Python/Django and exposure to at least one additional backend technology such as Go, Node.js, or Java/Kotlin.
• Proven experience managing production systems in major cloud environments, including handling transactional databases at scale, container orchestration, queuing systems, and CI/CD infrastructure.
• Demonstrated ownership of incident resolution from detection through post-incident follow-up.
• Ability to author clear Technical Design Documents understandable by both engineering peers and product leaders, effectively transforming ambiguous product requirements into concrete backend solutions.
• Strong collaboration skills engaging senior product management, design, and machine learning teams, prioritizing system success over personal correctness.
• A pragmatic and systematic problem-solving approach that seeks root causes beyond superficial symptoms.
• Hands-on experience employing agentic engineering tools and workflows in real-world production settings.

Preferred Skills

• Exposure to subscription and entitlement platforms such as Stripe, RevenueCat, or app store billing systems.
• Experience directing platform or infrastructure migrations, including moves between on-premises and cloud, across cloud providers, or architectural transitions from monoliths to services.
• Worked collaboratively with machine learning teams developing recommendation engines or feed systems.

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation is competitive and varies by geography, experience, and skill set. For Canadian locations, the salary range is approximately CAD 179,000 to CAD 228,500 annually. The role also includes equity ownership and a broad benefits package.

Work Locations

This position is onsite with locations in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Additional permissible employment locations in Canada include Alberta and New Brunswick. Suitable U.S. locations include various metro areas listed by the company.

Employee Benefits

• Flexible work arrangements through Scribd Flex
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
• Mental health support and disability insurance
• Generous paid time off policies including vacation, sick leave, holidays, volunteer time, and sabbaticals
• Parental leave and family support
• Retirement plans with matching and employee equity opportunities
• Professional development and learning programs
• Wellness and home office stipends
• Access to Scribd product suite and enterprise AI tools

Equal Opportunity

Scribd, Inc. is committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of diverse personal characteristics, encouraging applicants from varied backgrounds to foster innovation and creativity.