Staff Infrastructure Engineer

Infrastructure Engineer

Scribd is seeking an Infrastructure Engineer to join the Core Infrastructure team and build the foundations that take Scribd into the future. Each day offers opportunities to deliver and to learn.

We value inclusion and diverse perspectives. We review infrastructure changes in code, define SLOs, and run blameless postmortems; we build paved roads with guardrails for speed and reliability.

About the Role

You will architect and operate a modern, service-oriented AWS environment and partner with service owners as we deepen our AWS-centric model. Your work will improve reliability, performance, and observability for a suite of products used by 250+ million people each month.

Responsibilities include:

• Design, build, and operate core platform components (ECS/EKS, networking, load balancing, logging, metrics, tracing, caching, and storage)
• Provide architectural guidance, operational support, and capacity planning for Amazon Aurora (MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible) clusters
• Define SLOs and actionable alerting; reduce MTTR and alert noise through automation and better signals
• Ship infrastructure as code (Terraform) with reviewed modules, tests, and CI/CD
• Run migrations and modernizations (e.g., containerization, service patterns, data platform upgrades) with clear runbooks and rollout plans
• Partner with product teams to shift operational ownership; coach teams on runbooks, dashboards, and reliability best practices
• Improve cost efficiency, performance, and security by design (least-privilege IAM, secret management, and network boundaries)
• Participate in an on-call rotation and lead blameless postmortems that drive lasting fixes
• Contribute to a paved-road developer experience: documentation, templates, and office hours

Required Skills

• 7+ years operating production infrastructure on AWS, with strong knowledge of distributed systems, multi-tier architectures, and application security
• Data platforms: designing and operating SQL databases (e.g., Amazon Aurora), NoSQL/search (e.g., Elasticsearch/OpenSearch), and key-value caches (e.g., Redis/ElastiCache)
• Schema design for high-throughput applications
• Database performance tuning and cluster scaling experience
• Proficiency with containers and schedulers (Docker with ECS and/or Kubernetes)
• Hands-on Terraform and Git-based workflows, including tests for infrastructure changes
• Observability: metrics/logs/traces, SLO-based alerting, and incident response fundamentals
• Networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, routing, load balancing (L4/L7)
• Ability to write clean, maintainable code for automation, monitoring, and tooling in at least one language such as Python, Ruby, Rust, or Go
• Clear communicator and mentor; comfortable leading deep technical design discussions across teams and mentoring junior engineers

Desired Skills

• Working knowledge of ProxySQL, query processing, and routing
• Experience with Delta Lake and S3 (data lake patterns, partitioning, lifecycle policies)
• Experience improving 24/7 on-call health: reducing pages, building automation, tightening feedback loops
• Pragmatic knowledge of AWS platform services and their trade-offs
• Interest in service-oriented architectures: availability, eventual consistency, and fault tolerance

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 to $260,500. In the United States, outside of California, the reasonably expected salary range is between $137,500 to $247,500. In Canada, the reasonably expected salary range is between $175,000 CAD to $231,500 CAD. 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.

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

• 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.