Software Engineer (Backend, Python) - Content Understanding

About the role

The ML Content Understanding team at Scribd, Inc. powers metadata extraction, enrichment, and content understanding across all Scribd brands. We 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. Our systems operate at massive scale, supporting diverse datasets like user-generated content (UGC), ebooks, audiobooks, and more. We 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.

Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable systems to extract, enrich, and process metadata from millions of documents, images, and audio content.
• Leverage LLMs to integrate capabilities like summarization, classification, extraction, and enrichment into metadata pipelines.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including ML engineers and product managers, to deliver scalable, efficient, and reliable metadata solutions.
• Optimize and refactor existing systems for performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Ensure data accuracy, integrity, and quality through automated validation and monitoring.
• Participate in code reviews, ensuring best practices are followed and maintaining high-quality standards in the codebase.
• Manage and maintain data pipelines, security and infrastructure.

Requirements

• 4+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Proficiency in Python, Scala, Ruby, or similar languages.
• Experience designing and building distributed systems at scale.
• Hands-on experience building, deploying, and optimizing solutions using ECS, EKS, or AWS Lambda.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform (or similar).
• Experience working with a public cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud).
• Familiarity with data processing frameworks like Spark or Databricks for large-scale workloads.
• Proven ability to test, profile, and optimize systems for performance, scalability, and reliability.

Bonus

• Experience working with LLMs or integrating ML models into production systems.

Pay

The reasonably expected salary range for this position is between $103,500 [minimum salary in our lowest US geographic market outside of California] to $186,500 [maximum salary in our highest US geographic market outside of California].

Schedule

Occasional in-person attendance is required for all Scribd, Inc. employees, regardless of location.

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
• Retailment 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