Staff Backend Engineer – Payments & Billing

About The Company:

At Scribd (pronounced “scribbed”), our mission is to spark human curiosity. Join our team as we create a world of stories and knowledge, democratize the exchange of ideas and information, and empower collective expertise through our three products: Everand, Scribd, and Slideshare. 

We support a culture where our employees can be real and be bold; where we debate and commit as we embrace plot twists; and where every employee is empowered to take action as we prioritize the customer.

When it comes to workplace structure, we believe in balancing individual flexibility and community connections.  It’s through our flexible work benefit, Scribd Flex, that employees – in partnership with their manager – can choose the daily work-style that best suits their individual needs. A key tenet of Scribd Flex is our prioritization of intentional in-person moments to build collaboration, culture, and connection. For this reason, occasional in-person attendance is required for all Scribd employees, regardless of their location.

So what are we looking for in new team members? Well, we hire for “GRIT”. The textbook definition of GRIT is demonstrating the intersection of passion and perseverance towards long term goals. At Scribd, we are inspired by the potential that this can unlock, and ask each of our employees to pursue a GRIT-ty approach to their work. In a tactical sense, GRIT is also a handy acronym that outlines the standards we hold ourselves and each other to.  Here’s what that means for you: we’re looking for someone who showcases the ability to set and achieve Goals, achieve Results within their job responsibilities, contribute Innovative ideas and solutions, and positively influence the broader Team through collaboration and attitude.

About the Team

The Payments & Billing team at Scribd powers our subscription revenue engine by delivering the systems that manage billing lifecycles, global payment processing, and financial reliability across Scribd, Everand, Slideshare, and Fable. Our focus areas include payment processing at scale, invoicing, reconciliation, fraud prevention, compliance, and support for international currencies and payment methods. We partner closely with Product, Finance, Risk, and Platform Engineering to ensure that millions of readers worldwide can reliably access our services every day.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the technical architecture and implementation of Scribd’s payments and billing systems, the backbone of our subscription business.

• Design, build, and operate backend services that power subscription payments at global scale.

• Own billing lifecycle, global payments, invoicing, reconciliation, and financial reliability—integrating with multiple providers (Stripe, Adyen, Braintree) and supporting international currencies and local methods.

• Ensure compliance and security of financial systems through PCI DSS, tokenization, encryption, and secure data handling.

• Foster a culture of technical excellence while driving scalable, resilient, and observable financial systems that enable teams to move fast, simplify complexity, and deliver revenue with confidence

• Modernize legacy systems and eliminate technical debt to improve velocity and scalability.

• Partner with Product, Finance, Risk, Platform, and Analytics to deliver secure, reliable financial flows, leveraging data, metrics, and telemetry to uncover trends, resolve anomalies, and guide the team with clarity and foresight.

• Mentor engineers, shape cross-team technical strategy, and tackle some of the hardest scaling and security challenges in the company.

We’re Looking for Someone Who

• Has 8+ years of backend engineering experience, with deep expertise in building and scaling distributed systems for financial or mission-critical workloads.
  

• Brings a strong foundation in data modeling, transactional consistency, and high-throughput architectures, with hands-on SQL (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL) and familiarity with NoSQL and caching.
  

• Is skilled in observability and reliability practices: defining SLOs, implementing metrics/alerts, debugging distributed systems, and leading incident response.
  

• Has strong coding ability in at least one modern backend language such as Ruby (preferred), Java, Go, or Python, with a focus on clean, maintainable, and secure code.
  

• Has a proven track record of technical leadership: setting architectural direction, mentoring engineers, and driving large-scale migrations or modernization efforts.
  

• Communicates clearly and collaborates across product, finance, risk, and platform teams, influencing both technical and business decisions.
  

• Contributes to cross-team initiatives (mentoring, architecture review groups, knowledge sharing) that shape Scribd’s engineering culture.
  

It’s a Plus If You

• Has strong coding ability in Ruby.

• Have deep experience designing and operating payment or billing systems.
  

• Have integrated with major payment service providers (Stripe, Adyen, Braintree, PayPal) and managed multi-currency or local payment methods.
  

• Bring knowledge of compliance and security standards (PCI DSS, encryption, tokenization).
  

• Understand fraud prevention strategies (chargebacks, retries, card fingerprinting, abuse detection).
  

• Have led large-scale migrations between payment providers or billing systems with minimal customer impact.

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At Scribd, your base pay is one part of your total compensation package and is determined within a range. Our pay ranges are based on the local cost of labor benchmarks for each specific role, level, and geographic location. San Francisco is our highest geographic market in the United States. In the state of California, the reasonably expected salary range is between $167,000 [minimum salary in our lowest geographic market within California] to $260,500 [maximum salary in our highest geographic market within California].

In the United States, outside of California, the reasonably expected salary range is between $137,500 [minimum salary in our lowest US geographic market outside of California] to $247,500 [maximum salary in our highest US geographic market outside of California].

In Canada, the reasonably expected salary range is between $175,000 CAD[minimum salary in our lowest geographic market] to $231,500 CAD[maximum salary in our highest geographic market].

We carefully consider a wide range of factors when determining compensation, including but not limited to experience; job-related skill sets; relevant education or training; and other business and organizational needs. The salary range listed is for the level at which this job has been scoped. In the event that you are considered for a different level, a higher or lower pay range would apply. This position is also eligible for a competitive equity ownership, and a comprehensive and generous benefits package.

Working at Scribd, inc.

Are you currently based in a location where Scribd is able to employ you?
Employees must have their primary residence in or near one of the following cities. This includes surrounding metro areas or locations within a typical commuting distance:

United States:

Atlanta | Austin | Boston | Dallas | Denver | Chicago | Houston | Jacksonville | Los Angeles | Miami | New York City | Phoenix | Portland | Sacramento | Salt Lake City | San Diego | San Francisco | Seattle | Washington D.C.

Canada:

Ottawa | Toronto | Vancouver

Mexico:

Mexico City

Benefits, Perks, and Wellbeing at Scribd

*Benefits/perks listed may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Scribd and the geographical location where you work.

• Healthcare Insurance Coverage (Medical/Dental/Vision): 100% paid for employees

• 12 weeks paid parental leave

• Short-term/long-term disability plans

• 401k/RSP matching

• Onboarding stipend for home office peripherals + accessories

• Learning & Development allowance

• Learning & Development programs

• Quarterly stipend for Wellness, WiFi, etc.

• Mental Health support & resources

• Free subscription to the Scribd Inc. suite of products

• Referral Bonuses

• Book Benefit

• Sabbaticals

• Company-wide events

• Team engagement budgets

• Vacation & Personal Days

• Paid Holidays (+ winter break)

• Flexible Sick Time

• Volunteer Day

• Company-wide Employee Resource Groups and programs that foster an inclusive and diverse workplace.

• Access to AI Tools: We provide free access to best-in-class AI tools, empowering you to boost productivity, streamline workflows, and accelerate bold innovation.

Want to learn more about life at Scribd? www.linkedin.com/company/scribd/life

We want our interview process to be accessible to everyone. You can inform us of any reasonable adjustments we can make to better accommodate your needs by emailing [email protected] about the need for adjustments at any point in the interview process.

Scribd is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage people of all backgrounds to apply, and believe that a diversity of perspectives and experiences create a foundation for the best ideas. Come join us in building something meaningful.