Staff Software Engineer, Core Infrastructure

About the Role

Core Infrastructure builds and operates the foundations of Scribd, Inc.: the paved roads of cloud infrastructure, networking, databases, and observability that let every product team move fast with confidence. This role will join an existing team of Senior, Staff, and Principal engineers building the Content Library and Core Infrastructure of Scribd, Inc. for all our production datastores. Working alongside the Content Library's architect and lead engineer, you'll take ownership of the application codebase, drive feature development forward, and help shape where the platform goes as it becomes the foundation for all content at Scribd, Inc.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate the Content Library's core Rust services (transactional storage, transform coordination, and low-latency retrieval paths) at the scale of hundreds of billions of objects.
• Own features end-to-end, from technical design through implementation, testing, deployment, and production operations (observability, on-call, and incident response for the systems you own).
• Evolve the Python userland (the transform framework, tooling, and developer experience) and support engineers across the company who build on the platform through code reviews, guidance, and well-designed APIs.
• Lead cross-functional projects with stakeholders in ML, search, product, and data teams: defining roadmaps, milestones, and technical designs that balance scalability, performance, cost, and delivery.
• Drive performance and cost-efficiency across the stack: query execution (DataFusion), Parquet file layouts, S3 access patterns, caching strategies, and PostgreSQL/Aurora tuning.
• Strengthen the platform's governance capabilities: data lineage, authorization and access controls, and deletion propagation across brands.
• Raise the engineering bar on the team through mentorship, design reviews, and improvements to our developer environment, including making agentic AI workflows more effective within our codebase while preserving quality, security, and ownership.

Requirements

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience building backend, distributed, or data-intensive systems.
• Production experience writing Rust and strong proficiency in Python.
• A deep understanding of storage and data fundamentals: object storage (S3), columnar formats (Apache Parquet/Arrow), and relational databases (PostgreSQL and/or MySQL).
• A track record of designing and operating high-throughput, low-latency services, including the operational side: metrics, tracing, alerting, and debugging production systems.
• Demonstrated technical leadership: leading projects across team boundaries, writing design docs that build alignment, and mentoring engineers.
• Experience with AWS (e.g., S3, Lambda, ECS, Aurora) and infrastructure-as-code workflows (e.g., Terraform).
• Clear communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, and comfort turning ambiguous requirements into shipped software.

Qualifications

Ideally, you have:

• Direct experience with Apache DataFusion, arrow-rs, the parquet crate, or building query engines and database internals.
• Contributions to open source, especially in the Rust data ecosystem (delta-rs, Arrow, DataFusion, etc.).
• Experience with data governance at scale: lineage, access control, GDPR and deletion compliance.
• A FinOps mindset: you've bent a cloud bill downward through architecture, not just instance right-sizing.
• Experience building platforms that other engineers build on: SDKs, contribution models, and paved-road developer experience.
• Recent, hands-on investment in agentic engineering practices, using tools like Claude Code as a core part of your development workflow while keeping human review at the center of quality and security.

Pay

In the state of California, the reasonably expected salary range is between $176,500 [minimum salary in our lowest geographic market within California] to $275,000 [maximum salary in our highest geographic market within California]. In the United States, outside of California, the reasonably expected salary range is between $145,000 [minimum salary in our lowest US geographic market outside of California] to $261,500 [maximum salary in our highest US geographic market outside of California]. In Canada, the reasonably expected salary range is between $184,500 CAD [minimum salary in our lowest geographic market] to $244,500 CAD [maximum salary in our highest geographic market].

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